Over the 2020-2021 period, public support made it possible to increase the standard of living of the French by 12.7 billion euros. A transfer that has benefited in particular to the middle classes.
by Béatrice Madeline
The reforms initiated just before the appearance of the COVID-19 and those taken as part of the “whatever it costs”, did they bring more to the rich than to the poor? To this question far from being neutral on the political level, INSEE answers in the affirmative, figures in support. The social and tax measures taken in 2020 and 2021 made it possible to increase by 1.1 % the standard of living of the inhabitants of mainland France, summarizes a study appearing in the 2022 edition of the France, social portrait, which appears This Tuesday, November 22.
But “this increase benefits above all the easiest half of the population,” concludes INSEE, after having dissected the impact of each of the measures. More precisely, public support made it possible to generally increase the standard of living of the French by 12.7 billion euros over the period 2020-2021. On average, this represents 280 euros per person and per year over the two years. But for the easiest half, this figure rises to 420 euros on average, while it does not exceed 130 euros for the least favored categories of the population.
Without contesting the figures on the merits, Bercy wants to qualify this observation. On the one hand, the entourage of the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, stresses that “the easiest half of the population” actually includes the largest of the battalions of the middle classes. The categories that have benefited the most from socioofiscal measures in 2020-2021 are those which are between the fifth and the eighth decile of living standards. In other words, who live with a net monthly budget (after tax transfers and services) between 2,000 and 3,000 euros approximately.
On the other hand, we underline in Bercy, these disparities fade if they are expressed as a percentage rather than euros. The most modest, in terms of living less than 833 euros per month, thus saw their standard of living grow by 1.1 % over these two years, while for the richest the improvement was limited to 0.7 %. It is here again for the middle classes that the improvement was the clearest, up to 1.6 % – for those who live with 2,500 euros monthly.
Finally, recalls a relative of Bruno Le Maire, this observation of INSEE relates to only two years, and not to the whole of the first five -year period and the year 2022, marked by the energy crisis. “It is difficult to say that we did not massively help all French people,” said Bercy. Be that as it may, this difference in the impact of support measures for households taken during the COVID-19 crisis finds an explanation in their very nature.
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