The family allowance funds will offer from Thursday a new service to single-parent families: they can serve as an intermediary between ex-spouses for the payment of alimony, in the event of unpaid bills, the government announced on Wednesday.
With this new device, "
tomorrow there will be no unpaid support payments, (or) single-parent families in distress,
" assured the Minister of Solidarity Olivier Véran, who came to present this reform in a family allowance fund. (CAF) of Versailles.
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For many single-parent families - mothers in the overwhelming majority of cases - the delay in the payment of child support "
is a source of conflict in the ex-couple and worsening of precariousness and poverty for the mother. with his children,
”observed the Minister, who was speaking alongside the Secretary of State for Children and Families, Adrien Taquet.
This "
public service
" - whose entry into force was initially scheduled for June but was delayed due to an epidemic crisis - is aimed at parents whose ex-spouse has not paid the pension he owed them. .
The idea had emerged during the “
Great debate
” in 2019.
Concretely, the families concerned will be able to seize the CAF - or the Mutualité sociale agricole (MSA) - which, as today, will not only be responsible for paying the injured parent an allowance of 116 euros per month, before turning to the bad payer. , but will now also be able to take on, in a sustainable manner, an intermediary role, so that alimony systematically passes through it.
From January 2021, the system will be extended to all separated couples - including for a long time: even in the absence of any payment incident, everyone can entrust the CAF with this role of intermediary in the payment of alimony.
According to the government, there were 2.4 million single-parent families in 2018, or one in five, a proportion that has more than doubled in 40 years.
In 85% of cases, the mother is the head of the family.
About a third of these families live below the poverty line and 20% of RSA beneficiaries are single mothers.
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Almost a million families are entitled to alimony, for an average amount of 170 euros per month.
The government expects around 100,000 beneficiaries of its new service.
For this, some 400 administrative agents were recruited in the CAFs and MSAs to meet the demands.
The stake, underlined Olivier Véran, will now be to communicate on this new device because "
nothing would be worse than to have a functional system but that people do not know
".