By wanting to deprive recipients of social minima of the back-to-school bonus, the Senate provokes an outcry on the left and in associations

The amending finance bill (PLFR) continues its turbulent course in Parliament. The left and the associative actors reacted strongly, Wednesday August 3, to an amendment to this text voted by the Senate in first reading the previous night. It aims to replace the exceptional back-to-school bonus, reserved for recipients of social minima, by an increase in the activity bonus, which only concerns low-income workers.

The exceptional back-to-school bonus, in the amount of 100 euros, was intended for people in precarious situations who receive minima such as the RSA, the allowance for disabled adults (AAH) or the specific allowance for the elderly. (ASPA), according to the government’s initial plan. But the Senate, where the right has the majority, voted for this emergency aid to be replaced by an increase of 150 euros in the activity bonus, which is intended only for workers with modest resources. Beneficiaries of the AAH will however be entitled to it.

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For the general budget rapporteur, Jean-François Husson (Les Républicains, LR), behind the amendment, “we must give a signal” to poor or modest workers, who “often pass by” aids. The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, gave an unfavorable opinion on this amendment, which according to him “would amount to withdrawing the benefit of aid from 4 million poor households”.

“You take advantage of the night to allow you to hit the poorest once again”accused the ecologist Thomas Dossus, the socialist Rémi Féraud castigating a “very ideological amendment”. “It’s the children you’re going to penalize”launched his comrade Jean-Claude Tissot.

“There had already been an amendment made by LR to reduce the increase in RSA (…). The Republicans have embarked on a kind of poverty-hunting that is unworthy”denounced the Green MP Sandrine Rousseau at the microphone of France Inter, adding: “Most people who are at the RSA suffer from this situation. This idea that it’s lazy people who don’t want to go to work, it’s a right-wing idea, it’s a liberal idea, and it’s very different from reality. »

” It’s dangerous “

Pascal Brice, the president of the Federation of Solidarity Actors which brings together hundreds of associations specializing in the fight against exclusion, sees in this decision of the Senate “a way of opposing” low-income workers and those who do not work. ” It’s dangeroushe estimated with Agence France-presse. We must both deal with the difficulties of the middle class and support people living in poverty”.

The amendment was adopted by the LR and centrist groups, with the exception of a handful of them. “For me it’s no”said Senator Elisabeth Doineau (Centrist Union), ” hostile “ to a measure that “excludes in particular single women with children”.

The amending finance bill for 2022 was adopted Wednesday, August 3 early in the morning by the Senate, by 225 votes for and 101 against. It opens 44 billion euros of loans, including 9.7 billion to finance the renationalization of EDF. The text was to be the subject of discussions between senators and deputies, Wednesday evening in a joint joint committee, to try to find an agreement on a final version.

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The World with AFP