The use of the daily caregiver allowance (Ajpa) remains modest, with 6,626 entitlements open between its launch in September 2020 and February 2022, according to a report published by the Social Security Department shortly before Caregiver Day on 6 october.
When it was implemented in 2020, it was estimated that 270,000 employees and 67,000 public officials were eligible for Ajpa.
This aid, currently 58.59 euros per day, is paid to relatives who take leave to care for a disabled person or a person with a loss of autonomy.
Nearly two thirds of the people helped are over sixty years old: 31% between 60 and 79 years old, 32% between 80 and 89 years old and 12% over 90 years old, according to an evaluation report of the system.
“
Some of the people over the age of 60 receive help because of a disability, and not because of a situation of age-related dependency.
Thus, in total, the system benefits in equal proportion to carers of disabled people (51%) and carers of people with age-related loss of autonomy (49%)
”, notes the report.
Read alsoAssisting without forgetting yourself: the difficult balance of family caregivers
Why such a low rate of recourse, while the number of elderly people is increasing?
The study evokes a "
misunderstanding of the
system" which is still recent, and a poor understanding of the conditions of eligibility: thus, of the 18,987 Ajpa applications filed with the Family Allowance Funds, only 6,626 of them gave rise to an opening of right.
Impact of teleworking
This assessment study therefore suggests a simplification of the application procedure and a strengthening of communication around these devices.
Teleworking and partial unemployment, facilitated during the Covid health crisis, have also reduced the use of the system, even though many establishments welcoming the elderly and disabled have closed.
"
Massive recourse to telework and short-time work schemes open to employees living with a vulnerable person
" have been able to reduce the need to request caregiver leave "
by already facilitating the caregiver's presence with their loved one and reconciliation with their working life
,” the report said.
On the other hand, "
the Ajpa being only open for a period of 66 days and the caregiver leave for a period of one year over the entire career, the caregivers were also able to make the choice not to mobilize these rights when other mechanisms existed at the national level
”.
