what is the specific solidarity allowance, which Gabriel Attal wants to eliminate and replace with the RSA?

This aid, of 18.17 euros per day, was received by nearly 322,000 beneficiaries at the end of 2021.

Gabriel Attal assures that he wants “fight inactivity traps”. In his general policy speech on Tuesday January 30, the Prime Minister announced the abolition of the specific solidarity allowance (ASS) for unemployed people at the end of their rights, who will instead receive the Active Solidarity Income (RSA). Franceinfo explains to you what this measure will change.

What are the conditions for payment of ASS?

Managed by France Travail and financed by the State, ASS is an allowance intended for job seekers who have exhausted their unemployment insurance rights. A jobseeker over 50 can also choose ASS rather than traditional unemployment compensation if it is more favorable to them. The amount of the allowance is 18.17 euros per day, or 545.10 euros per month.

To benefit from it, you must be actually looking for a job, have five years of salaried activity in the 10 years preceding the end of the employment contract and not exceed a monthly resource ceiling. As of April 1, 2023, this ceiling was 1,271.90 euros for a single person and 1,998.70 euros for a couple. ASS is paid for six months. At the end of this period, it is possible to request its renewal, provided that you still meet the eligibility conditions.

Who are the beneficiaries of this aid?

At the end of 2021, ASS was received by 321,900 beneficiaries, according to a document published in September 2023 by the statistical service of social ministries (Drees). For comparison, the RSA concerned 2.1 million people at the end of 2022, according to the same source.

More than one in two beneficiaries (58%) is aged 50 or over, a proportion which can be explained by the conditions of access to ASS. The majority of beneficiaries are men (53%) and two out of three beneficiaries are single people. As ASS is a benefit intended for very long-term unemployed people, 72% of beneficiaries have been registered as job seekers for at least three years and 52% for at least five years.

What is the difference compared to RSA?

Unlike RSA beneficiaries, ASS beneficiaries continue to acquire quarters for the calculation of their retirement. SSA “extends unemployment compensation” And “allows, without working, to validate quarters” while “we consider that retirement must be the fruit of work”argued the head of government in his statement.

For the president of the CFE-CGC executives union, François Hommeril, the government “little by little take away the provisions that exist and allow people who are in a momentary precarious situation in their career to still acquire retirement rights”. In “by removing the ASS, we remove from the job seeker the validation of quarters for the basic pension and the obtaining of points for the [retraite] complementary”reports for his part Michel Beaugas, of Force Ouvrière.

Furthermore, the monthly resource ceiling to benefit from ASS is more than twice as high as that existing to be a recipient of RSA (911.63 euros for a couple). “We are going to have men and especially women who will find themselves having nothing at all (…) because for example there is a minimum wage for their spouse”deplores Denis Gravouil, of the CGT.