The purchasing power bill will be presented to the Council of Ministers on Thursday, confirmed Elisabeth Borne during her general policy speech. It will include measures “concrete, fast, efficient” against inflation and to help “the most vulnerable”, she promised. The adoption by Parliament of this text, the executive’s response to the acceleration of inflation, could be complicated for lack of an absolute majority in the National Assembly for the presidential camp. Overview of the measures envisaged by the government.
Energy: fuel discount, tariff shield and transport bonus
The government has decided to extend at least until the end of August the 18 cent fuel discount (in mainland France), introduced on April 1. Some three billion euros were budgeted for the period from April to June, which will therefore have to be supplemented in the amending finance law.
In September or October, a device more targeted at “big riders” must take over.
Furthermore, the extension until the end of the year of the “tariff shield” (cap on electricity and gas prices) is recorded, for a cost estimated at more than 14 billion euros over the year 2022, according to an estimate by Bercy last March. An amount that can change according to variations in the price of gas.
Finally, the ceiling of the tax-exempt individual transport premium that the employer can pay to the employee will increase from 200 to 400 euros for 2022 and 2023, and will be cumulative with the compulsory payment of 50% of the subscription to public transport. The transport bonus is paid by companies that cover all or part of the fuel costs of their employees using a personal vehicle to get to work.
Basic pensions and social benefits
Retirement and invalidity pensions under the basic schemes will be revalued by 4% from July 1, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne confirmed in early June. This increase, combined with that of just over 1% in January, is approaching the level of inflation, which reached 5.2% in May.
Family benefits and social minima, namely active solidarity income (RSA) -which today amounts to 550.93 euros for a single person without resources-, allowance for disabled adults (AAH) ) (919.86 euros maximum) and the solidarity allowance for the elderly (Aspa) will also be revalued by 4%, according to part of the purchasing power bill consulted by AFP.
Some of these social benefits had already been increased by 1.8% in April.
According to Les Echos, these revaluations would cost eight billion euros until April 2023.
Index point
Civil Service Minister Stanislas Guerini announced on June 28 the upgrading of the treatment of 5.7 million public employees from July 1, up to 3.5%. However, due to logistical constraints, the increase will probably only show up on the agents’ payroll from August, with retroactive effect for the month of July. The agents of the three sides of the public service (State, territorial, hospital) are concerned but the amount in euros of the increase will depend on the salary of each civil servant or contractor. According to the executive, the measure will allow the nearly 700,000 civil servants and contract workers paid at the minimum wage to get out of this precarious situation.
Four additional measures were announced:
- the renewal in 2022 of the Gipa bonus (paid at the end of the year or at the beginning of 2023), which makes it possible to compensate for the difference between the evolution of wages and that of inflation
- the 7% increase in the State’s contribution to the financing of collective catering as of September 1
- the government also plans to relax the conditions of eligibility for the sustainable mobility package
- an additional salary boost for early-career Category B agents towards the start of the fall.
The overall bill for the thawing of the index point amounts, according to the ministry, to 7.5 billion euros, divided between the State (3.2 billion euros), the communities (2.28 billion EUR) and hospitals (EUR 1.99 billion). The four additional measures will cost 170 million euros, said Stanislas Guerini at a press conference.
Prime Macron
The ceiling of the exceptional bonus of tax-free and desocialized purchasing power, known as the Macron premium, will be tripled. Companies will therefore be able to pay up to 3,000 euros to their employees, and even up to 6,000 euros for those who have set up a profit-sharing or profit-sharing system.
In 2021, however, the average amount paid per employee was only 506 euros, against 1,000 authorized, according to the Ministry of Public Accounts.
Independents
A reduction in the contributions of the self-employed is also planned. This measure, which aims for more equity between the contributions of employees and the self-employed, should allow the latter to earn 550 euros per year at the level of the Smic, assured in mid-May the spokesperson for the former government Gabriel Attal.
Rents
The benchmark rent index will rise 3.5% in July then stay stuck at this level for a year, a measure presented by the government as a compromise between the interests of tenants and landlords. Personalized housing aid (APL) will also be increased by 3.5% from July 1, and not October 1 as is usual.
The waived fee
The abolition of the audiovisual license fee will ultimately be effective next fall, with a gain for households of 138 euros. This means a shortfall of more than three billion euros for the state.
The executive ensures that the measure will not lead to a reduction in public broadcasting resources. But for the unions, funding and independence of public broadcasting are threatened. Another government could, for example, decide to reduce the budget allocated to public media in the coming years. the state “must find an alternative to finance a strong audiovisual public service”, responded SNJ Radio France in a statement. “A lasting alternative and not subject to annual budgetary arbitration to guarantee its independence and in particular that of its editorial staff”.
“Abolishing the license fee, an affected resource, means making public broadcasting more precarious and impoverished by shifting it to the general state budget”, so by making it permeable “to the arbitrations and the incessant political pressures”say the unions.
The one-euro restaurant ticket for students
Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has asked her government to work on measures for students. An extension of the university restaurant ticket at 1 euro is in the pipes.
food check
According to the daily Les Echos (paid article), a food check of 100 euros, plus 50 euros per dependent child, should be paid to nine million households, for a total cost of one billion euros. Recipients of RSA, AAH, minimum old age and APL could be affected. In 2020, during the Covid-19 crisis, a similar bonus of 150 euros per adult and 100 euros per child concerned just over four million households.
On the other hand, the bill will not include the possibility, for supermarkets, of carrying out food promotions up to 50%, according to information from franceinfo. The proposal made by Bruno Le Maire was “discarded this [mardi] morning”, during the working meeting around Emmanuel Macron relating to purchasing power, energy and public finances, a government source told our colleagues.