Background information

Pensions and social benefits are revalued each year, on 1 January or 1 April, in line with inflation. The very sharp rise in prices since the beginning of 2022 has led the government to bring forward this annual revaluation in order to preserve the purchasing power of their beneficiaries. to cope with inflation. With effect from 1 July 2022, several social benefits have been revalued by 4%.

Content of measure

With effect from 1 July 2022, several social benefits will be revalued by 4%. These include old-age and disability pensions, pensions paid under the occupational injury and disease insurance scheme, the RSA (revenu de solidarité active/active solidarity income), family allowances and disabled adults' allowances (AAH).

This early revaluation compared to the usual dates of 1 January or 1 April will not be cumulative but will be applied to the next annual revaluation of the benefits concerned.

Deputies (National Assembly) voted unanimously minus two votes to increase social benefits and pensions by 4% during the first reading of the bill.

Use of measure

This measure to improve purchasing power will benefit:

• 6 million families receiving family benefits
• 18 million pensioners
• 4.5 million households receiving the activity allowance (prime d’activité) provided to low paid workers
• 1.9 million households receiving the active solidarity income (RSA)
• 1.2 million recipients of the disabled adults' allowance (AAH)
• 1.6 million holders of a pension for accidents at work or permanent illnesses (AT-MP)
• 800,000 recipients of a disability pension
• 600,000 recipients of the minimum old-age pension
• 300,000 beneficiaries of solidarity allowances (ASS, AER and ATA) paid by Pôle emploi

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Applies to all workers	Does not apply to businesses	Older citizens Disabled Pensioners People on social benefits People on low incomes

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Social insurance	National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies	Consultation through tripartite or bipartite social dialogue bodies

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Social partners jointly
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

No detailed information. As the representative social partners participate in the management bodies of the social security branches, they are necessarily consulted, even if it is simply a formality.

Views and reactions

About all the measures adopted to increase the purchase power of workers, all the trade union organisations, and in particular the five representative trade union confederations and the organisations representing young people, denounced, in a declaration of 21 July, the legislative measures announced by the government, including the generalisation of profit sharing.

They consider 'that wages are part of the sharing of wealth' and they 'are unanimous on the fact that the priority issue must be to increase wages, pensions, minimum social benefits and student grants'. However, the trade unions denounce the fact that 'a succession of one-off measures, mainly financed by the State, cannot constitute a sufficient package to respond to the emergency'. Moreover, the trade unions and youth organisations point out that 'these exemptions and reductions in contributions are undermining our collective social protection system'.

Employers’ organisations have not reacted to these measures.

Sources

• 16 August 2022: Loi n° 2022-1158 du 16 août 2022 portant mesures d'urgence pour la protection du pouvoir d'achat (www.legifrance.gouv.fr)
• 16 August 2022: Loi n° 2022-1157 du 16 août 2022 de finances rectificative pour 2022 (www.legifrance.gouv.fr)