Criticism against a report recommending 4.2 billion euros in savings on family policies

Familles de France and the CGT criticized on Friday the savings options envisaged in a recent report requested by Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and which proposes 4.2 billion euros in savings on family policies. The CGT accuses the government, which is working on the draft budget and the Social Security financing bill, of preparing “savings to the detriment of families and students, despite a surplus” of 1.2 billion in the family branch of Social Security.

“There is no question of benefiting families; on the contrary, the government intends to implement new savings measures or redirect existing funds,” the union denounced in a press release on Friday. A report from the General Inspectorates of Social Affairs (Igas) and Finance (IGF), dated June, proposes to the government nearly 2.5 billion euros in short-term savings and up to 4.2 billion in the long term on family policies.

“So many additional expenses that parents and their children will have to bear if they are implemented”, notes the CGT, which denounces in particular the “reduction of APL for students” or “the elimination of the tax reduction for tuition fees”, which “will further increase the cost of schooling and studies for many households”. “The downward harmonization of certain benefits, on the grounds that they would benefit the wealthiest families more” “fundamentally calls into question the principle of universality of Social Security”, which the CGT “intends to defend without concession”.

Towards a questioning of the pension increase granted to parents of three or more children?

Familles de France for its part warned against a possible call into question of the 10% pension increase granted to parents of three or more children, mentioned in this report, which suggests replacing it with a flat rate increase of 125 euros per month. For Familles de France, family retirement rights “constitute a form of recognition of parents’ investment in the education of children and the contribution of families to the future of society”.

The federation of associations believes that “reducing these rights in the name of simply seeking savings could lead to further weakening the pensions of people whose careers have already been affected by family responsibilities”. The careers of women in particular “are often marked by interruptions in activity and part-time work linked to the arrival and education of children,” she emphasizes. The organization asks the executive “not to make families a budgetary adjustment variable” and “to guarantee that any change in family retirement rights does not result in a reduction in the level of parents’ pensions”.