The support measures put in place by the government to deal with the economic crisis, caused by the health crisis, had their expected effects in 2020. According to a study by INSEE (National Institute for Statistics and Economic Studies) , published this Wednesday, November 3, poverty did not increase last year in metropolitan France. The proportion of people living below the poverty line remained stable at 14.6%, as in 2019. But this result is a sham because at the same time the crisis had a real impact on RSA beneficiaries: their incomes decreased by 7% on average in 2020. However, these are preliminary estimates, carried out by micro-simulations, the real poverty rate for 2020 will be calculated in the course of the year 2022. But l ‘Insee assures us that this estimate has proven its reliability for several years.
The coronavirus did not worsen poverty in France
There was no peak in poverty in mainland France in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. According to INSEE estimates, despite the recession that occurred last year, the number of French people living below the poverty line remained at the same level as in 2019, namely 14.6%. This represents 9.3 million people with incomes of less than 1,100 euros per month. “At first glance, this may be a bit surprising“, admits this Thursday, November 4 on franceinfo Nicolas Carnot, director of studies and economic statistics of INSEE.
The public aid put in place by the executive has enabled many French people not to become poor. In the midst of the crisis, the government deployed numerous support measures which acted as a social shock absorber. Partial activity was paid to a large part of the employees when their activity was stopped, preventing them from too great a loss of income. “The massive use of the partial activity scheme, with extended compensation terms, has meanwhile limited job losses.“, explains INSEE. The poorest households received aid of 150 euros between June and November 2020. For the public institute for statistical studies,”exceptional aid to self-employed workers “also made it possible” to limit their loss of living standards“. Without this exceptional aid, there would have been 400,000 more poor people last year, according to INSEE.”5% of the income of the 10% of the poorest households comes from these exceptional schemes“, specifies Nicolas Carnot.
The gap has not widened between the poor and the rich either. inequalities have not been reinforced by the crisis. In 2020, as in 2019, the standard of living of the wealthiest 20% of French people remained four times higher than that of the lowest 20% of French people.
Precarious people more precarious than before
If a wave of poverty has been avoided, the fact remains that those who were already in precariousness are now more so. The health crisis has undermined the income of RSA beneficiaries, reducing them by 7% on average in 2020, according to INSEE. The return to work has also been more difficult for those who benefited from minimum social benefits in 2020. “Their income was preserved because they benefited from social minima, but their prospects of returning to the labor market were at least temporarily negatively affected.“, according to the director of studies and economic statistics of INSEE. Nicolas Carnot indicates on franceinfo to have observed”a sustained increase of just over 10% in the volume of food aid recourse in 2020“.
The INSEE study does not take into account informal income, which may have been affected during the confinements. “It is possible that the health crisis had a more marked effect for some of the most vulnerable people, poorly captured by the Tax and Social Income survey, as could be suggested by the marked increase in the volumes of food aid distributed in 2020 or the surge in requests for specific one-off assistance for students“, admits INSEE.