Family allowances: Édouard Philippe promises a “tax reduction” to help families “from the first child”

Édouard Philippe explained on Thursday that he wanted to “totally review the family allowance system” by helping families “from the first child” and by proposing “a tax reduction of around 3,000 euros” for “the three years following the birth of a child” for “the middle classes”. For the Horizons candidate in the presidential election, guest of the program “L'Heure de Vérité” on France Télévisions, we must “totally review the family allowance system”.

“We must help families, including single-parent families, of course, from the first child. Today, we help them a lot, but from the second and even more from the third. I think that we must help, with a completely revised family allowance, all families from the first child onwards", with "a single family allowance which allows 350 euros to be paid from the first child", explained the former Prime Minister.

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“The second thing is to support working families who have a child, then a second, then a third if they wish, by ensuring that they obtain a tax reduction of around 3,000 euros, which allows working middle classes not to pay income tax for the three years following the birth of a child,” continued Édouard Philippe. “So that means that the middle classes who pay income tax (...) who generally pay less than 2,500 to 3,000 euros in income tax, well, we help them by creating a tax reduction which is obviously extremely significant for them over three consecutive years,” he said.

Also read Guillaume Tabard: “Édouard Philippe, from the long walk to the danger of standing still”

“Work longer”

Édouard Philippe also recalled his proposal for a “zero-interest loan for families who, having a child (additional, Editor’s note), must change apartments and decide to be able to buy an apartment”. The mayor of Le Havre also explained that he wanted to exempt employees who agree to “work longer” from social security contributions. “The idea is to say: if you work longer, the employee will earn more, because there will be no more social security contributions. And the company will be able to have labor costs that will be a little lower. Everyone will gain, we will work more.”

“This is not negligible for someone who is on minimum wage. For example, work two hours more per week in this context. It's an effort, it's true. But working two hours more per week means 1,000 euros more per year.” Asked about public finances, the Horizons candidate also said he wanted to “significantly” bring the deficit “below the 3% barrier, that is to say 2%” at the end of his five-year term.