The Disabled Adult Allowance will be deconjugalized from October 1, 2023 after the vote of the National Assembly overnight from Wednesday to Thursday, a text “highly anticipated by people with disabilities and associations for years”according to Arnaud de Broca, president of the Collectif Handicaps on franceinfo Thursday.
This deconjugalization means that the spouse’s income will no longer be taken into account for the calculation of this benefit from October 2023 at the latest. AAH affects 1.2 million people in France, and deconjugalization would have an impact “just over 260,000 people, let’s say 300,000 in total“, according to him. Arnaud de Broca declares that this progress is “auspicious” and wishes to take the opportunity to move forward on other pregnant subjects.
franceinfo: Are you satisfied with this text?
Arnaud de Broca: There is a first very concrete dimension for people who will see their allowance increased by this new method of calculation. There is also a symbolic dimension which is to make coherent the discourse of an inclusive society in which people with disabilities would have and will have their full place.
The calculation of the allowance will be based on the situation of the person himself. It is this dimension, in particular, that was lacking in the previous government, which talked a lot about inclusive society, but which ultimately did not go all the way with this reform and was even opposed to it.
“It’s a real step towards real autonomy, a step that is also made thanks to the unanimity of the political groups, which is also important for us.”
Arnaud de Broca, President of the Handicaps Collectiveat franceinfo
This means that on the issue of disability, we see that we can achieve unanimity or at least a strong majority. I think it can bode well, perhaps for the next few months, to advance the situation and the rights of people with disabilities.
The date of October 1, 2023, is it a deadline that suits you?
We think it could be done faster. It is the bitter taste that remains with us this morning after a general satisfaction to see this measure adopted. It is true that Minister Olivier Dussopt explained why it raised a lot of questions about CAF’s information systems and that it took time to do it. We think that we must continue to put pressure on to go faster and many deputies have spoken in this direction.
“Once again, today we are announcing an evolution, but concretely, the disabled will still have to wait 15 months to see this announcement materialize.”
Arnaud de Broca, President of the Handicaps Collectiveat franceinfo
We can’t help but think we’ve wasted a lot of time over the past two years. If the government had accepted this measure from the start, when it had an absolute majority, we would have saved time. This measure will be applicable now and even before because we could have worked on it. Minister Olivier Dussopt announced a technical meeting on the subject, we will officially ask to participate because we are interested in knowing where the blockages are. The fact remains that the delay is still extremely long for people who have been waiting for this for more than 40 years.
What is the next project you want to see progress by taking advantage of this unanimity on the issue in the Assembly?
On the AAH, there are in fact many other subjects: that of the amount but also that of the accumulation with the income from work and still other subjects. For other projects that could move forward with this new configuration of the National Assembly, we can cite the issue of accessibility, which is not progressing or is progressing very, very slowly. The issue of compensation, that is to say how we can finance facilities for disabled people, compensation for disability through technical, human aids, etc. There are many projects and we can hope that this unanimity of yesterday will be found on other subjects.