A Restos du Coeur volunteer (Illustration). – LODI Franck / SIPA
- About 8,000 people participated in the online citizen consultation on universal working income.
- There is consensus on the main principles of the reform, but the funding and future allocation levels are still unknown.
- For the representative of a federation of associations, it will inevitably be necessary to spend more in view of the ambitious objective of the government.
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The government unveiled this Monday a first assessment of the citizen consultation on the universal activity income (RUA), a device desired by
Emmanuel Macron in the frame
of its poverty reduction strategy. The head of state wants to merge a large number of social benefits which are now subject to different rules and paid by different bodies. The presidential project plans to consolidate at least the RSA, the activity bonus and personalized housing assistance, by 2022.
By confining itself to this single perimeter, the RUA would concern 17 million people (8 million beneficiaries and their families), or one French in four, and would have an annual budget of more than 30 billion euros. That’s the scale of the project. Unlike other reforms carried out with beating speed, the executive does not want to be in a hurry on the RUA: it launched in September a large citizen consultation to collect the opinion of the French. A platform was therefore put online and “citizen workshops” were organized in several cities. These are their results which are published this Monday.
Methodological limits
What do we learn? First, that the online consultation did not stir up the crowds. According to the tally drawn up by Opinion Way, also responsible for analyzing the data, only 8,100 people actively participated in the consultation (vote on a government proposal, drafting of an argument or a new proposal). By comparison, 45,000 people voted on the pension reform platform.
In addition, since participants do not have to provide specific information (age, political orientation, etc.), this consultation on the RUA is in no way representative of the French population. These limits being set, several results are still interesting to analyze. So when you look at the government proposals put to the vote, most of them have gained broad approval.
Better readability
This is the case for the grouping of social aid (64% of votes for), the harmonization of the method of calculating rights (78% for), the detection of persons eligible for the RUA in order to inform them of their rights (81 % for), or even personalized support (74% for). “Citizens are asking for a simple and readable system that is adapted to everyone’s conditions,” says Vincent Reymond, the new inter-ministerial delegate for poverty.
These results are in line with the citizens’ opinions gathered during the six workshops organized in six regions. Among the 475 participants (half of whom received at least one social benefit), 67% believed at the end of their workshop that the RUA would be “a good idea”. Again, the readability and ease of use of the future universal income from work are highlighted.
Who will have what?
Even if they approve the general framework desired by Emmanuel Macron, the participants in the concertation remain very cautious as to the final result. Among the reasons for concern, there is for example the fear of obligations or possible counterparties linked to the payment of the RUA. The central subject, that of funding and the amounts allocated to each beneficiary, is also a source of great concern. It’s impossible, for example, to know today the amount of RUA to which everyone will be entitled in the future.
“We ask citizens to vote even when we do not have quantified working hypotheses with the winners and losers, regrets Florent Guéguen, director of the Federation of Solidarity Actors (Fnars). It’s a bit like pension reform: we present a system without knowing the concrete consequences. ”
Patience, responds in substance Vincent Reymond: “Institutional consultation [avec, entre autres, les associations] continues until May and will address the themes of RUA governance and funding. No question will be concealed ”. For Florent Guéguen, it is unimaginable anyway that the reform does not result in a financial effort from the State: “We will have to put in several billion euros more,” he warns. For example, the government wants to lower the rate of non-use of the RSA, which is now 30%. If it reaches its goal, it will represent an additional 2 to 3 billion euros [en raison de l’augmentation du nombre d’allocataires]. Likewise, if we open the future RUA at least 25 years old, which we are asking for, we will need additional resources ”.
In official note on the “framework” of the RUA, published in November 2019, the executive effectively explained that “in all of the scenarios explored, any increase in the appeal rate linked to the reform is subject to additional funding”. But this openness was counterbalanced by this remark: “these hypotheses are of a conventional nature and in no way presage the budgetary framework which will be retained in the end”. In other words, nothing prevents the government, if it finds that the RUA is too expensive for its taste, to brutally tighten the screw on its future budget.
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