The government has announced its plan to fight purchasing power, which “not enough“, according to Pascal Brice, president of the Federation of Solidarity Actors who is organizing a mobilization this Friday for the revaluation of the profession of social workers in Paris and Marseille. He warns in particular about the situation of these workers, “themselves in a precarious situation“.
>> Fuel allowance, “food voucher”, pensions… What to remember from the package of government measures for purchasing power
franceinfo: How do you feel about this new fuel allowance?
Pascal Brice: It’s a good approach because targeting people who are really disadvantaged and need this type of aid seems very important. In general, they are of course welcome, but for 10 million men, women, families who are already in poverty and precariousness, you can see that this is not enough. For the poor, the precarious, we are not talking about purchasing power, we are talking about the power to live or survive. That is what is dangerous. I particularly welcome the desire to target the most disadvantaged on this fuel aid. I want to think that it will benefit social workers who, in this country, are often driven to travel with their vehicle to go and do their job, do their job, while they are themselves in a precarious situation. But that’s not enough. This is why we are calling for more to be done, to go further now in the face of inflation and over time to eradicate poverty and precariousness in this country, or in any case reduce them massively.
Further, what does that mean? The increase in social minima which is announced for example, of the RSA?
For the year, we are not even at the level of inflation, we already know that anyway, it will not be enough, if only to compensate for the rise in prices. So we are asking for a 10% increase in social minima, housing aid, so that we can help those who need it most.
I do not underestimate the difficulty in terms of public finances. But there are men and women for whom it is a question of survival. They are about 10 million in this country. Let’s make the effort to go as far as possible so that they can overcome this period of rising prices. But more fundamentally: I hear the government talking about full employment, wonderful, and this is an objective in which we are going to participate. But it is not by magic of full employment that poverty and precariousness will disappear in this country. We call for emergency measures and structural measures to make the fight against poverty and precariousness a fundamental objective.
You mentioned the middle classes: are they increasingly affected by precariousness and poverty?
Yes, and it is absolutely essential to address this situation because precariousness affects more and more of the middle classes in this country, people who work. This needs to be dealt with. We must deal with the difficulties of the middle classes in the relationship to work, on the value, remuneration, on the meaning of work. And that’s one of the virtues, I think, of the political situation in which we find ourselves, paradoxically. The obligation made to the political forces to discuss between them, it is perhaps finally the moment to say: solidarity, we need it, it is vital for 10 million people. We must both deal with the question of the middle classes and the question of the fight against poverty and precariousness. I will go demonstrate in Paris later with our associations. We also do it in Marseille, almost everywhere, for social workers, who are precarious people who help precarious people.