“People don’t eat numbers, they eat food”, reacted on franceinfo Tuesday, November 16 Henriette Steinberg, secretary general of Secours Populaire, on the study conducted by the Institute of Public Policies which evokes a gain of 400 euros in purchasing power on average for the French. “We are extremely perplexed about the figures”, she said, “This is not what we have seen for the last eighteen months.” The study also points out that measures in favor of purchasing power have not benefited all French people in the same way. The bottom 5% who live on less than 800 euros per month have lost nearly 40 euros per year.
franceinfo: All the French have therefore gained in purchasing power, except the most modest, those who live on less than 800 euros. Do you see these people coming to the Secours populaire?
Henriette Steinberg: Sure ! Of course we see them coming. We also see that the situation is not improving. And this is a real concern for us. These are not people who are not working. These are people who do not work full time and who obviously cannot. With 800 euros, how do you expect them to get there? In addition, they have one or two children and the family benefits themselves have not been increased. Obviously, the elements are piling up. It is not at the Secours populaire that they will tell you the opposite. We know them, we meet them. We support them as much as we can but it cannot be an association that manages to cover the difference. Obviously, it is very good to ensure that people have full-time work and are paid properly. But the question is also about those who are not in this situation. And this is not the result of personal choice.
This study by the Institute of Public Policy shows that inequalities are widening. Do you worry about the future?
Of course that worries us. That worries us because first of all, we tell ourselves that it is really very complicated when they have children and that the prospect for the children is that the situation does not improve. And as an earlier survey showed, it takes six generations to break out of the poverty trap. So if we go deeper, it’s not happy, it’s the least we can say to each other. And so, what we say to ourselves is that maybe we have to take the time to think about the subject differently and take the time to tell ourselves that when a woman works and that as a result she earns 800 euros, she’s not going to get away with her kid or her kids. And that if we further reduce him with regard to the partial assumption of his rent, that will not improve things and it will contribute to making that there is a concern in the country and that he there is a feeling of injustice which is based on experience. And for us it is true that it is worrying.
This study also shows that purchasing power has increased for almost all French people by 400 euros per year. How do you see the current situation?
As far as we are concerned, we are extremely perplexed on the figures and on the timing. Where do these numbers come from, where are they taken from? Because the idea that the situation has improved massively for the population is not what we have seen during the last eighteen months. People don’t eat numbers, people eat food and we have seen people come who never needed anything. So, we are told that it has been better for four years. The concrete experience we have in the 1,300 places where Secours populaire is present is not this. In addition, in recent weeks, with the feeling that prices are increasing in stores, some people are not able to do so and do not know how they are going to do it. We meet them everywhere. I find it hard to think that some never meet them. And then, when you walk in the streets and in certain neighborhoods, look how they are dressed. If you look at what they have on their feet, what they have on their backs, you can see that they are not wrapped in fur. And I am not talking to you about those who sleep in the street. I am talking to you about those who are in working-class neighborhoods. So the idea that it gets better, maybe. But we don’t have the chance to meet those for whom things are improving.