Question 10805 — housing: aid and loans

Summary

Mr. Stéphane Peu alerts the Minister of Action and Public Accounts on the impact, for the most modest households, of the multiple cuts to housing assistance since 2017. Already in 2017, the Government implemented, by decree, an initial elimination of five euros of APL. This unilateral decision was made without any consultation, despite the opposition of many housing stakeholders, and despite the extreme injustice that represents such a measure while, in the same week, the Government had the National Assembly vote on tax reductions for the benefit of the richest taxpayers. This senseless decision was deplored by almost unanimity in the political landscape, including in the very ranks of the executive: described as a “bad decision” by the Secretary of State to the Minister for Territorial Cohesion, as a “measure of plane [while it is] never intelligent to make planes” by the Prime Minister, and “nameless stupidity” by the President of the Republic. The Minister of Territorial Cohesion had also warned: “If they continue like this, I’m out of business”. However, “they continued like that”: in fact, the finance law for 2018 was an opportunity for the executive to vote again, on the sly, yet another blow. B of III of Article 126 provides that “the indexation on October 1 of the parameters of the scale of personalized housing assistance, the family housing allowance and the social housing allowance (...) is not applied in 2018”. This is, again, a shortfall estimated between 4.2 and 4.68 euros per month. This decision is all the less understandable as it will, once again, impact the poorest households. HAS Unlike measures aimed at the richest taxpayers, the housing assistance paid to them is far from being a gift. On the contrary, they represent a means of subsistence for their 6.5 million beneficiaries, 70% of whom are part of the last decile, namely the 10% of French people with the lowest income. It is precisely these people who are most exposed to poor housing, and live often overcrowded or makeshift homes, deprived of comfort and suffering from great energy poverty. While France prides itself on protecting the weakest from precariousness, this measure still condemns low-income households, even though the expected benefit, of the order of 30 million euros, is tiny for public finances, and in any case infinitely less than the 7 billion euros that the elimination of the ISF and the reform of capital taxation. The great Brazilian writer Paulo Coehlo said: “a constantly repeated error is no longer an error, it is a choice”. He wants to know if the Government finally intends to learn the lessons of the profound injustice of the measures decided in 2017 and reverse its mistakes by finally upgrading housing assistance.

Machine translation from French. The official text remains authoritative.

Timeline

1. 11 March 2019

   Réponse

   Les aides personnalisées au housing (APL) sont l'aide sociale la plus importante: elle représente 18 milliards d'euros versés chaque année à 6,5 millions de ménages, dont 25 % sont allocataires des minimas sociaux. Elles sont ciblées sur les ménages les plus modestes ou en difficulté afin de leur permettre d'accéder à un housing décent et de s'y maintenir. De plus, elles sont attribuées sous conditions de ressources et conformément à certains plafonds variant selon la composition du foyer et du lieu du housing en application de article R. 351-5 du code de la construction et de l'habitation. Dès 2020, les APL seront calculées sur la base des revenus les plus récents des allocataires pour mieux prendre en compte la réalité de leur situation. Les travaux en cours relatifs à la création d'un revenu universel d'activité permettent de s'interroger sur les modalités générales d'attribution des prestations et de s'adapter à l'évolution du coût de la vie. Les conclusions de ces travaux seront publiées en 2020.

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