The approximately 9.2 million poor people in France received an average of 335 euros per month in social assistance in 2019, which allowed the poverty rate to be reduced by 7.6 points, according to a study published this Thursday by the Statistics Directorate of social ministries.
Thanks to these benefits, which include social minimums, housing subsidies, family benefits and the activity bonus, the poverty rate reached 14.6% of the population in metropolitan France, while without these benefits it would have reached to 22.2%, specifies the DREES. In other words, social benefits reduce the poverty rate by a third.
Single-parent and large families are the most affected
For people living below the poverty line, or €1,102 a month for a single person, these benefits represent 38% of their disposable income. These are “non-contributory” subsidies, that is, the beneficiary receives them without having to contribute previously: unemployment insurance benefits are not taken into account in this calculation.
The effect of redistribution on the poverty rate is especially marked for single-parent families (-20.7 points for those with at least two children), for large families (-15.7 points for couples with three children) and for young people under 20 years of age (-12.7 points).
More than 7 million recipients of social minimums
The number of recipients of social minimums, which had increased by 4.4% in 2020, under the effect of the Covid crisis, then fell by 3.5% in 2021. In total, including spouses and dependent children, 7, 1 million people are covered by these minimums, that is, one person in ten in mainland France and one in three in the overseas departments (except Mayotte).
The professional trajectories of RSA beneficiaries are very heterogeneous: 20% leave the social minimum from one end of the year to the next, but conversely, 22% (among the age group of 35 to 64 years) “have spent the last ten years in social activities. minimum”. And 40% make “round trips” to and from the RSA.
Source: BFM TV
