At the end of 2019, a majority of French people said they were in favor of paying family allowances from the first child. This is the proposal made by deputy Modem Nathalie Elimas: grant family allowances from the first child, an additional tax share from the second and increase the family quotient ceiling, this is in condensed what is contained in a parliamentary report made public on Friday.
In this report written on behalf of a parliamentary mission on "the adaptation of French family policy to the challenges of 21st century society", the deputy (Modem) Nathalie Elimas proposes to establish a "full and complete universality" of Family allowances.
85 euros per month
This supposes, according to her, to grant them from the first child - and not from the second as today - and to remove the means test which since 2015 has reduced the amount of allowances granted to the wealthiest households.
Thus modified, the allowances could be 85 euros per month for the first child, 160 euros for the second and 250 euros for the third, suggests the elected centrist. The granting of "allowances" from the first child would cost 2.5 billion euros per year, and the removal of the means test 750 million, she calculated.
A gradual implementation
Nathalie Elimas also advocates raising the family quota ceiling - this device which allows parents to reduce their income tax according to their number of children - to 1,800 euros per half share, compared to 1,567 today. A measure whose cost is estimated at 550 million euros.
"All these measures can not necessarily be implemented at the same time, but we ask for a plan and a trajectory, with a view to a gradual implementation," explained the MP, whose report must be formally approved on Tuesday by the fact-finding mission.
A previous controversial report
Such a reform would be consistent with the evolution of society because "French families are no longer the same" as in 1945, when the main lines of current family policy had been drawn up, observes Nathalie Elimas. The number of children per family has dropped significantly, and now the "overwhelming majority" of households have "a maximum of one or two children," she notes.
A previous parliamentary report on family policy, in March 2018, had caused major turmoil: LREM MP Guillaume Chiche had already suggested paying “allowances” from the first child, but he proposed, in return, to remove the family quotient.
His idea, of which he praised the "major redistributive effects", had received a volley of criticism. His co-rapporteur, the deputy (LR) Gilles Lurton, had dissociated himself from it, so that the report had never been adopted. The government, for its part, had rejected any change in the family quotient.
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