New refusal. After a rejection in June and last October, the National Assembly again said no Thursday, December 2 evening to an individualization of the allowance for disabled adults. The bill containing this sensitive measure was examined at third reading during a “niche” dedicated to the texts of the PCF group. The “de-maritalization” of the allowance for disabled adults (AAH) consists in calculating the AAH without taking into account the spouse’s income, unlike what is done today.
The opposition, from left to right through the Agir group, ally of the majority, recalled that some people with disabilities have to choose between living as a couple at the risk of seeing their allowance decrease, or keep it, but waiving it. legally at their union. “This price of love is unacceptable” and the rule in force “contrary to the most elementary humanity”, hammered the rapporteur Stéphane Peu (PCF). “We will not let go”, assured Aurélien Pradié (LR), who had also brought the subject in October before the Assembly.
The LREM-Modem majority, for its part, denounced electoral aims, a few months before the presidential election, and invited these opponents to bring it into the campaign. The government is against “deconjugalization” which it considers unfair, because it benefits the poor as well as the wealthy. He also presents her as a “dead end” likely to call into question “the entire French social protection system based on family and national solidarity”, a position repeated in the hemicycle by Sophie Cluzel, Secretary of State for People with disabilities. “I don’t see social justice anywhere”, she repeated, referring for example to people with disabilities financially supporting their families and who could lose the allowance in the event of de-maritalization.
The majority voted through the 2022 budget a formula considered “more redistributive” : a flat-rate allowance of 5,000 euros on the spouse’s income, ie an estimated average gain of 110 euros per month for 120,000 couples from January 1. “This government sets up real rights, not incantation”, according to Sophie Cluzel. The bill, emptied of its flagship measure, can return for a third reading before the Senate with a right-wing majority, which had again voted in October very largely in favor of “deconjugalization”.
But it would take an agreement from the Assembly for a final adoption of the measure. With a maximum amount of 904 euros per month, the AAH, intended to compensate for the inability to work, now has more than 1.2 million beneficiaries, including 270,000 couples.