2023-11-14 08:41:30
Published on Nov 14, 2023 at 7:41 a.m.
Poverty is getting worse in France. In its annual report published this Tuesday, Secours catholique notes that the median income of beneficiaries has decreased, falling to 538 euros per month in 2022.
This amount corresponds to less than half of the poverty threshold, estimated by the association at 1,211 euros that year. With such a budget, beneficiaries have only 18 euros per day to meet all household needs, warns the association, which analyzed data from 49,250 files. Above all, taking into account inflation, which particularly affects the prices of food and energy, this represents a decline of 7.6% in income.
“The poorest are hit by inflation, the noose is tightening, the deprivations are greater on things not necessarily visible, such as heating or food,” comments Adélaïde Bertrand, general delegate of Secours catholique.
To fight against poverty, the association recommends in particular indexing social minimums to the minimum wage, extending the RSA and fighting against non-take-up of social benefits by making social services more accessible.
Increase in female precariousness
In total, Secours catholique welcomed a million people to France last year, who benefited from various services, such as food aid or social support. Among these people, households made up of only one adult are over-represented (75%). These are mainly single mothers (25.7%) and single women (20.9%).
Many of them knock on the association’s door after a separation or divorce. Indeed, women “suffer more of the weight of marital breakdowns” and “assume, too often alone, the responsibility of children”.
Women’s precariousness has steadily increased in recent decades, while poverty affected men and women equally until the early 2000s, notes Secours catholique. Women now represent 57.5% of the people met by the association, compared to 52.6% in 1999.
Source AFP
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