2023-11-14 15:57:00
LPoverty has been increasing in France since Covid and inequalities are increasing. This is the observation drawn up by the latest INSEE report on the subject, published this Tuesday at the end of the day. Overall, the French emerged from the pandemic poorer than they entered it. But in detail, it is above all the living standards of the poorest that have fallen, while those of the wealthiest have improved.
In 2021, the share of poor French people increased by 0.9%, to stand at 14.5% of the population. More than nine million people therefore lived, two years ago, below the monetary poverty threshold, established at 60% of the median income, or 1,158 euros per month for a single person, half of them having less than of 924 euros per month.
If this impoverishment also concerns employed people – 7.4% of whom lived below the poverty rate – it is mainly the unemployed (35.1%) and large families (25.6%) who are affected, as are women, on the front line.
They also represent 57.5% of the people welcomed last year by Secours catholique. A rate much higher than their proportion in the population in France, which pushes the association to speak of the “feminization” of poverty in its latest annual report.
- Single mothers and children on the front lines
Many single mothers in particular request help from Secours catholique. This year, they represented a quarter of the million beneficiaries that the association supported. A situation which is explained, in part, by the lack of payment of alimony: almost a third of solvent fathers continue not to pay them.
But the trend towards impoverishment is broader and caused, according to INSEE, by the cessation of aid put in place during the Covid pandemic and by the non-renewal of the increase in the back-to-school allowance, which largely affected the most vulnerable families.
The APL reform is also being singled out: according to INSEE, the overall level of aid paid has fallen since its entry into force in January 2021. Result: almost a quarter (20.6%) of children living in France in 2021 were in poverty.
Inflation is finally playing its role: reaching 1.6% in 2021 compared to 0.5% in 2020, it has contributed to lowering living standards since social benefits, aligned with the inflation rate of the previous year , increase less quickly than prices.
Conversely, if poverty has increased, the income of the wealthiest has benefited from the resumption of activity following the shutdown imposed by Covid. Little affected by the end of state aid, the living standards of the wealthiest French people increased in 2021, further widening the gap with the poorest populations.
For example, driven by the increase in wages and wealth income, the wealthiest 5% of the population saw their standard of living increase by 4.5% between 2020 and 2021, while the 20% of the poorest French people have lost 2% of purchasing power. Taking inflation into account, the standard of living has only fallen in 2021 for the poorest French people, while that of the richest has improved.
“The resumption of activity in 2021 was accompanied by an increase in labor income and dividends received by households, more marked for the wealthiest households whose standard of living is increasing. On the other hand, the non-renewal of exceptional solidarity aid paid in 2020, linked to the health crisis, weighed on the living standards of the most modest households which decreased in 2021,” writes INSEE.
If retirees still remain slightly better off than the active population, the trend is starting to reverse. Suffering from inflation, their median standard of living fell by 1.1% in 2021, a year during which 10.9% lived below the poverty line.
A trend that has been observed since 2017: while the average retirement pension increased each year until then, driven by new retirees with full careers, the curve has reversed. New retirees now earn a little less than all retirees.
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