a device that struggles to convince

After a year of hardship, a year without a job at the RSA, Diorobo Gassama has found a smile. She is a canteen agent in the Paris suburbs, on a fixed-term integration contract in a school. “I prefer work to RSA. It gives a lot of ideas and projects. We feel a lot better”, she says. Trajectories like this, the government wants to encourage them with another device: the RSA under conditions, tested in 18 territories. The principle is to condition the payment of the RSA to 15 to 20 hours of activity per week with integration into a company, volunteering or training.

Seine-Saint-Denis slams the door on the device

But the device is controversial, especially in Seine-Saint-Denis. The department has just given up on the experiment and denounces a stigmatization of the beneficiaries. “The RSA is a fundamental social right. It is for those who have exhausted all their other rights. You cannot strike off an RSA recipient like that in one go”, testifies Stéphane Troussel, PS president of the Departmental Council. In France, about two million households receive the RSA.