2023-09-21 11:28:07
Published on September 21, 2023 at 11:01 a.m.Updated September 21, 2023 at 1:28 p.m.
During the presentation of her “Solidarity Pact” on Monday, the Prime Minister announced the “creation of a return to work bonus”. Elisabeth Borne took up one of the proposals put forward by Thibaut Guilluy, the High Commissioner for Employment and Business Engagement, in the report foreshadowing France Travail which inspired the so-called “full employment” bill. A text that the deputies have just examined in the Social Affairs Committee and which will be discussed in the hemicycle at the Palais-Bourbon next Monday.
“Returning to employment must always be interesting,” explained the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, to the Assembly. Clearly, the return to work does not start by costing people who are on the edge financially.
Cost more than you earn
“Regardless of the net gain when returning to work, returning to work or starting training can generate additional expenses,” explains Thibaut Guilluy. Fuel or public transport costs, childcare costs, meal costs, the need to buy clothes… They “can represent a significant obstacle, or even prevent, the person from resuming an activity”, he emphasizes.
The measure does not arrive on virgin territory. A certain number of systems already exist, but they do not necessarily respond to all situations. Transportation aid is a good example. Their effectiveness has been demonstrated: “Employment associated with aid is very often sustainable,” underlines a Pôle emploi study published in December 2020. But “it is sometimes an obstacle course to obtain it,” notes one trade unionist.
A land that is not virgin
This work also underlines that “all things being equal, the mere fact of being informed of the possibility of receiving assistance would increase the probability of widening the scope of job search”. However, not all needs are necessarily covered, even for example the requirements of transport time or distance imposed, or those of the child’s age concerning current childcare assistance for single parents (10 years).
In his report, Thibaut Guilluy calls for “making more readable and accessible to their potential beneficiaries all the individual aid useful for removing social obstacles to returning to employment (calculation simulator, dedicated expert support, aid funds ), and investigate the relevance of an individual fund to cover the additional costs linked to the resumption of activity.
The report cites as an example the RSA exit pack created in 2017 by the Essonne departmental council “with support dedicated to transport costs, the purchase of work clothes or even lunch or childcare”.
The future bonus will ultimately concern 50,000 beneficiaries, specifies the Ministry of Labor. In 2019, 304,000 geographic mobility aids (excluding driving license assistance) were allocated to 124,000 beneficiaries, to follow training, go to a job interview or start a job. But the comparison is impossible until we know the content of the future device.
Doubtful unions
The return to work bonus “will simplify and complement existing systems to cover the costs associated with returning to work and help people in their transitions”, explains the High Commissioner for Employment. The measure must come into force in more than a year, on 1is January 2025.
If the unions also judge that “it is a good idea to fight against the obstacles to resuming employment”, the government project leaves them doubtful for the moment. “It’s not for now,” euphemizes one of their representatives. “If it’s just a new name and it brings together existing systems, it’s not the same as if an additional budget is allocated to it,” insists Olivier Guivarch, the national secretary of the CFDT in charge of employment.
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