Three months after its generalization, the reform of the RSA makes fear “of the risks of social exclusion”

The nights he struggles to sleep, Patrice Résasse, “Stress”,, worries about his future. “Sometimes I’m afraid of ending up on the street”Confides this 42 -year -old man currently in retraining in the artificial intelligence sector. After fifteen years as a salesperson, he found himself unemployed and now lives with his parents. Since the beginning of the year and the end of his allowances, he has lived, has been drawn into his savings to participate in charges and races and has registered in the RSA to continue to pay his training.

But the first transfers have not yet fallen – Active solidarity income is 646.52 euros per month for a single person without dependent on Tuesday April 1 – And Patrice wonders. “Do I have to work for 15 hours in addition to my training to touch my allowance? I do not know anything, but if I do not touch any compensation, This will complicate my daily life to continue my training, find accommodation“”he blows. He has not yet obtained an appointment with a French work councilor and even less signed his commitment contract.

After an experiment in around fifty departments, the RSA reform was generalized on January 1, 2025.he 1.8 million beneficiaries, now all enrolled in France work, must respect A reciprocal commitment contract (CER). The payment of their aid is conditioned at least fifteen hours of activity per week (in the world of work, in the form of training or for an entrepreneurial project). And the law for the full employment of December 2023 also establishes a sanction called “suspension-remobilization”. Taking effect in the coming weeks, it allows France Work or at the Departmental Council – the RSA is managed by the departments – to suspend the payment of the RSA if a beneficiary does not comply with part of his obligations.

This hardening worries associations and social actors. In an opinion published in mid-March, the National Council for Policy Policy and Social Exclusion (CNLE), a body attached to the Prime Minister, was worried about the implementation of this reform and the suspension “Without discernment” of the allowance, alerting on “Risks of social exclusion”. This law “”Bring, in a disproportionate way, the responsibility for the insertion on the beneficiaries and ignores the realities of the audiences and the jobs which are likely to be offered to them or which are accessible to them, according to their territory “Also note the CNLE.

An observation that Charlotte, 41, says he lives on a daily basis. This woman and her husband created an eco-place in the Alpes-Maritimes where they welcome trainees and cultivate Medicinal and food plants they sell in the markets. The beginnings are complicated, so the RSA they touch is a rescue buoy, the assurance of feeding their three children at the end of the month. “France Work asks us either to get income from our activity, or to work 15 hours a week to reach the RSA. But we are currently working, even if it brings us little”explains Charlotte, who sees in the RSA a means of “Join both ends” While waiting to live better. Instead, she lives “With the knife under the throat”.

As part of the commitment contract, she must regularly keep up to France, work in her eco-local approaches and sometimes accept missions of which she does not want, which has already led to suspensions of her allowance. “I dream of succeeding in being independent of my activity, but I do not refuse to work. If it is necessary to find a job, I will do it, but it must be in line with my convictions”Assures Charlotte, who has already refused an activity in a butcher’s shop (she is vegetarian) or at Amazon. She talks about an unfair reform and “violent”who makes her a “Pestedée de la Société”.

A feeling shared by some people who responded to the call for testimonies launched by Franceinfo, including Jean-Marie. This former intermittent of the show signed up in the RSA in January 2024 in Finistère, A few months after the death of his father. He then treated depression.

“I have the feeling of being controlled, that we say to people in the RSA like me: ‘It’s over enjoying the system’. But I am not the lazy that politicians describe. I have worked all my life, I just need this RSA to take time for myself, heal myself.”

Jean-Marie, beneficiary of the RSA

in franceinfo

In September, he had signed a commitment contract with his advisor. The objective: to perform fifteen hours of activity per week, in business or on your business creation project in audiovisual. What he did not do enough according to France work, which suspended his allowance at the start of the year. Jean-Marie is currently multiplying letters to regularize his situation, but refuses to carry out the fifteen hours of weekly activity.

“Either we do not work and we live badly, or we are paid for our work. But it is out of the question to work voluntarily”Slices Jean-Marie, whose case is not isolated. In Finistère, where he lives, the number of beneficiaries of the RSA has dropped by 18% in three years, in particular due to the reform which was experienced in this department, according to Son Braizh Izel. The president of the departmental council, Maël de Calan (DVD), sees it as proof of the return of beneficiaries in the world of work when the opposition denounces an increase in radiation.

Associations and social actors evoke a dangerous and counterproductive reform. In A review of experimentation Posted in October, Secours Catholique, ATD Quart-Monde and Aequitaz alerted to a “Risk of slipping towards free work” and a “Possible worsening of radiation mechanics”. “This reform has a social and economic risk, where beneficiaries will take a job to fill their 15 hours, without this taking advantage of the company or them”judge with Franceinfo Marion Ducasse, pleads in charge of Aequitaz. In particular, it sees in the sanctions towards the beneficiaries of the RSA a measure “ideological” Who “Go put pressure on them instead of helping them get out of the RSA”.

The new sanctions regime in the event of a breach could result in a suspension of the allowance of 30% to 100% – a decree must be published soon. In a document presented to the departmental councils, the government provides for two levels. For a first breach, there is a suspension of the allowance ranging from 30% to 100% for one or two months (the beneficiary will be able to regularize his situation and collect the allowance in a retroactive manner). In the event of persistent breaches, the Ministry of Labor envisages heavier sanctions, which can go as far as a total suppression of the allowance for four months.