five departments will experiment with automatic pre-filling from October

The RSA, the activity bonus and housing aid are affected by this system which will be tested in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hérault, Ardennes, Aube and Alpes-Maritimes. The problem is that only people already receiving benefits will benefit, deplores a group of NGOs.

Catherine Vautrin, Minister of Health, Labor and Solidarity, received on Monday for the first time the associations fighting against poverty in order to clarify the upcoming reform of solidarity at the source, France Culture learned on Tuesday June 4 from of the ministry and the Alerte collective which brings together these 35 NGOs. During this meeting, the minister announced that from October, five CAFs will test the first stage of the solidarity at source project, namely automatically pre-filled forms for beneficiaries. The five departments are Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Hérault, Ardennes, Aube and Alpes-Maritimes.

Solidarity at the source was a promise of Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign in 2022. As a candidate, he said he wanted to create automatic payment of social benefits such as the RSA, the activity bonus, the APL and family allowances. This system therefore aims to directly inform beneficiaries about what they are entitled to and to simplify their procedures for obtaining this social assistance. The idea is to calculate this aid using data already available to the administrations, on the same principle as for “the pre-filled income tax declaration”, explains Noam Leandri, president of the Alerte collective, to France Culture. This automatic pre-filling will therefore take place from October in the CAFs of the five test departments, before being extended to the entire national territory in March 2025. The RSA, the activity bonus and housing assistance are affected by this system.

If the collective is unanimous in supporting the idea of ​​the solidarity system at source, it wishes to emphasize the fact that not all people eligible for benefits receive them. Jean Merckaert, director of French advocacy at Secours catholique, gives several reasons to explain this situation: “There is a factor of information deficit, administrative hindrance [car] It’s very complicated to know your rights and access them.”, he points out. One in five households eligible for RSA does not apply, specifies France Culture.

However, for the moment, the government measure takes the form of simplifying procedures for those who already receive this social assistance. Noam Leandri, president of the Alerte collective, regrets this and pleads for “to seek out those who have not yet asserted their rights”. The president of the collective believes that “that would be a good thing” to send to these people “pre-filled forms”.

The associations also say they are in favor of the creation “a single form for all allowances”. “We would like the government to go further,” says its president. Noam Leandri recalls that he “There are still three years left in this five-year term for it to be truly useful and to achieve the eradication of poverty, which was a commitment of the President of the Republic in 2018.” According to information from France Culture, other meetings with NGOs will be organized. The minister wants to renew this format twice a year.