In the name of “work value”, senators restrict the exceptional back-to-school bonus – Liberation

On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, senators deprived 4 million poor households of a back-to-school bonus of 100 euros. They want to focus aid only on low-income workers. –

For those who doubted it, the Senate has just recalled that it was mainly on the right. On the night of Tuesday to Wednesday, during the examination at first reading of the amending finance bill for 2022, the second part of the “purchasing power” package, the senators decided to transform the exceptional back-to-school bonus into an increase activity bonus. Instead of the aid of 100 euros, increased by 50 euros per dependent child, which was to be paid at the end of the summer to beneficiaries of social minima, such as the RSA or the APL, the device favored by the Senate reserves the payment of 150 euros to people eligible for the activity bonus. Clearly, only workers with modest resources will be helped. The authors of the amendment wish “to refocus aid on the working poor rather than the recipients of social minima who do not work. The value of work must be encouraged”.

“Hit the poorest”

“I hear the wish to support more the French people who work hard, and who sometimes have the feeling […] that we help a lot of French people who make less effort than them, tried to temporize the Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, while issuing an unfavorable opinion. The amendment, if adopted, would amount to withdrawing the benefit of aid from 4 million poor households. Not enough to move the senators, who voted by 195 votes against 146 the amendment of the general rapporteur LR of the finance committee, Jean-François Husson, shortly before 1 am.

“You are once again taking advantage of the night to hit the poorest, protested the environmental senator Thomas Dossus. Do you think inflation doesn’t hit social minima recipients? Do you think scholarship students have regained financial health? Have you forgotten the queues in front of food banks? With this kind of blow, you prepare an explosive comeback!

Old fads of LR

The future of the back-to-school bonus is the thriller of this day on Wednesday. At 9 p.m., deputies and senators must meet at a joint joint committee to try to agree on the PLFR. The government and the Macronist deputies are against the senators’ amendment on the activity bonus and intend to obtain its withdrawal in the evening, but the negotiations promise to be tight. Without an absolute majority in the Assembly, the troops of the President of the Republic are in a weak position and must accept certain grievances from senators to hope for a quick vote on their “purchasing power” package.

The senators have already righted the copy of the Assembly by adding old fads of LR, such as the monetization of the RTT or the perpetuation of the cap at 7,500 euros for the tax exemption of overtime. The maintenance or withdrawal of the transformation of the exceptional back-to-school bonus into an increase in the activity bonus will be a good indicator of the state of the balance of power between the two chambers.

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