Don’t call her anymore “engagement income”, as Emmanuel Macron had done in July. The President of the Republic formalized, Tuesday, November 2 on Facebook, the launch of the Youth Engagement Contract. This device intended for young people aged 16 to 25 without employment or current training will offer them, from March 2022 and for one year, support to get closer to the labor market, which may be accompanied by an allowance of up to at 500 euros monthly.
Since its announcement in the summer, however, its scope has been reduced, and its name change underscores the executive’s desire not to present it as a guaranteed income. The measure also incorporates the principle of the Youth Guarantee, an already existing system, but with the aim of reaching a wider public. Franceinfo helps you to see more clearly in this announcement.
Support for unemployed young people …
For all its beneficiaries, the Youth Engagement Contract must give the right to “15 to 20 hours of support per week”, Emmanuel Macron said in a message on Facebook on Tuesday. The purpose of this supervision is to help these young people, far from the labor market, to “discover a profession, get training, find an apprenticeship or a job”. An idea based on the observation that, according to Emmanuel Macron, “hundreds of thousands of jobs are available all over France”, which these young people would access more easily by going through this contract.
By “young”, the executive designates more precisely the French of 25 years or less. To be eligible for the scheme, they must be “without training or employment for several months”, writes Emmanuel Macron. No duration threshold will be set, specifies the Ministry of Labor: it is when he takes his approach that a young person will know if he is entitled to the employment contract, after a diagnosis of the operator that he has requested. . To access this contract, young people must also have less than 497.50 euros in resources per month.
The support will last up to a year, but may be extended for another six months in certain specific cases, Prime Minister Jean Castex detailed on Tuesday. It will cease in case of “non-compliance with commitments” or from “unjustified refusal” a job or training offer.
… potentially accompanied by an allowance
The device also includes a financial aspect for the young people who sign this contract. “An allowance of up to 500 euros may be paid”, writes Emmanuel Macron. Depending on the person’s income, in particular if they find a job or training in the course of support, the amount of the allowance may decrease, as is already the case with the Youth Guarantee (it drops to 0 from 1,271.57 euros in income).
An overhaul of the current Youth Guarantee
A contract, accompanied by financial assistance, to help a young person find a job or training? The Youth Engagement Contract is very similar to the Youth Guarantee, a device created under François Hollande (our journalist Yann Thompson recently met young beneficiaries). It is also aimed at 16-25 year olds, and the accompanying allowance can also reach up to 500 euros per month (497.50 euros more exactly).
The executive does not hide that its measure is part of the continuity of what exists, and evoked from the beginning of 2021 the project of a “Universal youth guarantee”. The government had also already set for 2021 the objective of increasing from 100,000 to 200,000 beneficiaries for this first device. The Youth Engagement Contract finally goes “to substitute” to the Youth Guarantee, said Jean Castex on Tuesday.
Where the Youth Guarantee is entrusted only to local missions, the Youth Engagement Contract could, on the other hand, be managed by other actors, in particular Pôle emploi, explained the Prime Minister. He also promises that the support will be more “intensive and personalized”, and that the beneficiaries will have a single referent, whom they will meet at least every two weeks. The head of government also says he is counting on partnerships with actors in the field such as sports associations or the fight against poverty, to guide young people towards this contract and better understand their needs.
A more limited scope than expected
The final form of the Youth Engagement Contract is not necessarily the one suggested by Emmanuel Macron’s speech in July, when he mentioned this measure for the first time. The head of state then evoked a “engagement income for young people”, thus placing more emphasis on financial assistance. He did not specify that this aid would be, like that of the Youth Guarantee, subject to a means test.
This change follows several months of debates within the executive, which we already mentioned in October, the Ministry of the Economy having pushed to reduce the scope and cost of the device. Give up after “returned” is also very symbolic. “Word ‘returned’ was able to question. Let’s remove any ambiguity, we are in a contractual logic “, explained Jean Castex to Echoes, in September. He then insisted on the fact that the measure was not equivalent to opening up the RSA to those under 25.
In addition, in July, Emmanuel Macron announced a measure intended for all “young people without employment or training”. In his Facebook post on Tuesday, he adds a clarification: “for many months”. A criterion which will reduce the number of beneficiaries. A few hours later, Jean Castex explained that, if “about a million young people” are “unemployed, neither in training nor in studies”, “500,000 of them are lasting”. It is the latter who will ultimately be concerned, confirmed the Prime Minister.
The reduction of potential beneficiaries to 500,000 was already recorded in October, according to our information, while the Secretary of State for Youth, Sarah El Haïry, was still speaking in mid-September of a million people potentially concerned. According to what criteria will young people be considered “sustainably” without employment or training? The Ministry of Labor explains that the question will be decided during a “diagnostic” established when a young person will be a candidate. The government hopes that 400,000 of these contracts will be concluded in 2022.