Two thirds of the savings made would result from the reform of 2021, which hardened the rules of compensation for job seekers.
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At this stage, the unemployment insurance accounts continue to straighten, despite the sudden cooling of growth. In 2022, the regime should release a surplus of 2.5 billion euros, according to financial forecasts published on Wednesday, June 8, by Unédic, the association led by the social partners who manage the applicant’s compensation system of use. The return to better fortune is “confirmed,” said Patricia Ferrand, the president (CFDT) of the system, during a press conference. But this observation is stated with caution, due – in particular – of the war in Ukraine, which maintains strong uncertainties on the economic situation.
The current improvement follows two terrible years, during which the regime recorded exceptional deficits, in connection with the health crisis: – 17.4 billion euros in 2020 and – 9.3 billion euros in 2021. These colossal losses undermined finances already very degraded before the start of the COVVI-19 epidemic. At the end of 2021, the debt of the Unédic was widened, reaching 63.6 billion. However, by December 2024, part of the hole could be filled, up to almost 10 billion: according to M me ferrand, two thirds of these savings would result from the reform of the unemployment insurance, which hardened the compensation rules for job seekers.
Emergency measures from March 2020
“The debt is extremely important”, commented Jean-Eudes Tesson, vice-president (Medef), but it should, according to him, “dissociate” the one attributable to “emergency measures” taken from from March 2020 by the State, by involving Unédic (partial unemployment, etc.). The amounts at stake are far from negligible: 19.2 billion euros. How and by whom will they be reimbursed? Unions and employers want the question to be addressed with the government.
Another file occupies all spirits: the opening of a negotiation between social partners to draw up a new agreement which will redefine the parameters of the regime. At present, these are set in a decree whose provisions apply until the beginning of November. However, it is not certain that the organizations of employers and employees manage to complete a text by then, all the less since they must, first, receive a “framing document” from Matignon before d ‘Engage discussions. Wednesday, Christophe Valentie, the director general of the Unédic, said that the hypothesis of a extension of the decree was not excluded.