The President of the Departmental Council is unequivocal: “The State must fully assume the expenses of the RSA currently borne by the Departments. This is the only viable solution.”
He also advocates for active policies that could reduce expenses: “I propose to strengthen integration policies for the benefit of recipients using the resources thus freed up, and finally to provide Departments with the tools needed to combat social fraud.”
Following the decentralization of the RMI in 2004, the State entrusted the management and financial responsibility of the RSA to the Departments under the law of December 1, 2008, in unacceptable conditions, leaving the Departments to bear an increasing financial burden, which rose from 500 million euros in 2009 to 4 billion euros in 2015.
A bit of history
In a context of economic and social crisis, the cost of the RSA has increased rapidly in recent years, with no compensation from the State.
For the Department of Alpes-Maritimes, the RSA represented an additional financial effort of 161 million euros over the period from 2009 to 2015.
As the situation of the Departments became untenable, the Government proposed to the Assembly of French Departments (ADF) to take over the financing of the RSA, but by deducting from their revenues a compensation equivalent to the cost borne by the Departments in 2016, which is a much higher amount than the expense actually compensated by the State.
This proposal would place the Departments in a situation of lasting financial imbalance.
