191€. This is the volume of annual donations made on average over the last 12 months by the French in favor of people in difficulty, according to an Odoxa study carried out for Leetchi. Last year, this amount was 200 euros. A decrease of €9 can be explained by the reduction in the number of donors by more than €300 (-7 points, to represent 11% of the population) over one year at the same time. With year-on-year inflation stable at 4.8% in August, some French people are forced to reserve their purchasing power for their own needs. Nearly one in four respondents (38%) said they had given less this year than the previous year. Since the first iteration of the study in 2018, the generosity of the French has dropped by 22%.
This scarcity of financial support for the most precarious comes at a time when associations are warning about their situation and that of precarious populations. More than a month after their cry of alarm, the Restos du Cœur feel that they have not been heard by the government. "It's cracking everywhere," said Pascal Brice, president of the Federation of Solidarity Actors (FAS), which brings together some 800 associations fighting against precariousness and which launched a call for action on Thursday. "The appeal of the Restos du cœur has highlighted it: we have situations of precariousness that are spreading and worsening and we have associations that are exhausted and lack of resources," he adds. For Pascal Brice, the "situation of people and the ability of associations to cope" are "very worrying". For several months now, associations have been drawing the attention of the public authorities to the sharp increase in requests for aid, as well as their operating expenses, which sometimes plunge their accounts into the red.
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Nine million poor people in France
The Restos du Cœur, which provides 35% of food aid in France, made an impression in early September, warning that they would be forced to restrict the number of their beneficiaries this winter. In this tense context, the executive unveiled on 18th September its new strategy to fight poverty which, according to Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, should make it possible to "respond to the urgency of the current social situation" and "correct structural inequalities". These measures are a step in the right direction, but they remain very insufficient, according to those working in the field. "Very clearly, the response is not up to the task," said Pascal Brice, whose federation is calling for "two emergency measures": an increase in minimum social benefits and "indexation of funding to associations to the rise in prices."
In total, a hundred meetings are planned throughout France on Thursday "to make the voice of precarious people, social workers and associations heard," adds the president of the FAS. More than nine million people live below the poverty line in France, with less than 1120 euros per month for a single person, according to 2020 data from the National Institute of Statistics (INSEE).