A positive point for job seekers. For the first time since its creation in 1958, the return to work allowance (ARE) should be increased twice this year. Indeed, in addition to the annual increase scheduled for July 1, this aid should also be increased by 1.9% on April 1, subject to approval of a decree by the Council of State. This exceptional boost, due to inflation, was announced by several unions on Friday 24 March. The decision was taken during a board of directors of Unédic, the joint association co-directed by the social partners which steers the scheme.
“This follows a collective initiative of the trade unions which, faced with galloping inflation and the decline in the purchasing power of job seekers, requested and obtained this reassessment”, welcomed Force Ouvrière in a press release. . An almost unanimous initiative: only the CGT abstained. In February, the average net amount paid to unemployed workers on compensation was 1,006 euros, according to Unédic. On this basis, the revaluation therefore represents a little more than 19 euros.
How many people are affected by this double increase? About 1.7 million people, or 76% of recipients (those registered with Pôle Emploi for less than six months being excluded). According to our colleagues from Mondethe revaluation represents an effort of around 600 million euros over the 2023 and 2024 financial years. April 2022. However, the actual increase in April 2023 was reduced to +1.6%, as the government took into account the exceptional increase of 4% which had been granted “in advance” in July 2022, said the ministry to AFP.
The CGT, for its part, deplored that the employers had “not conceded more than a revaluation of 1.9% in total disconnection with the precariousness of the deprived of employment but, also, with the increases in the minima social and Smic”. Same story for the representatives of the associations. This aid, in their eyes, is not enough: they point out that consumer prices have risen by an average of 6.2% over one year, but at least by 14 to 15% on food and basic necessities. . According to INSEE, purchases of food products show a drop of nearly 9% over one year at the end of 2022.
The reform of unemployment insurance, another front for the executive?
The government therefore decided to let go of the ballast as another institutional front opened up. The main trade union centers informed, on Friday, the filing of an appeal against the reform of unemployment insurance, which since February 1 has led to a reduction in the duration of compensation for all new job seekers. The CGT, FSU and Solidaires, FO, CFDT and CFTC unions are on the initiative. The reform, which aims to modulate the conditions of unemployment insurance according to the situation of the labor market, provides for a 25% reduction in the duration of compensation for all jobseekers who have opened rights since February 1. An unemployed person who would have been entitled, for example, to twelve months of compensation under the old system is now only entitled to nine months.
The previous controversial reform, launched in 2019 and fully entering into force at the end of 2021, had been delayed for two years due to the Covid and the appeals of the unions before the Council of State. In particular, it has tightened the conditions of compensation for job seekers, in particular those alternating periods of work and inactivity.
