A food distribution from Secours populaire in Bourgoin Jallieu during the 2020 health crisis due to the coronavirus.

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ALLILI MOURAD / SIPA

  • The health crisis linked to the coronavirus epidemic has created economic difficulties for many French people.

    The living conditions of people in precarious situations have deteriorated and new people have been hit hard by the crisis.

  • The Secours populaire helped 1,270,000 people during the first two months of confinement, 45% of them were not known to the association.

  • According to Marie-Françoise Thull, secretary general of Secours populaire en Moselle and member of the association's national office, the observation is simple: “The poor have become even poorer.

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“With the crisis, people who were in a precarious situation fell into poverty, even extreme poverty.

For the Secours populaire, it is urgent.

Due to the crisis linked to the coronavirus epidemic, the number of beneficiaries of the association has exploded since March.

Partial unemployment, redundancy, canceled or non-renewed contracts… The economic impact of the health crisis is still difficult to quantify, but one thing is certain, the situation of precarious people has clearly worsened.

20 Minutes

takes stock in three questions.

Has the health crisis increased the number of beneficiaries of Secours populaire?

The situation leaves little room for doubt: since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, Secours populaire estimates that the number of beneficiaries has increased by 45% in France.

In 2019, more than 3.3 million people had benefited from Secours populaire, through food aid, payment of rents or bills, and going on vacation.

For the first two months of confinement alone, in March and April 2020, the association helped 1,270,000 people, according to an Ipsos barometer carried out last September.

“In Moselle, for example, we had between 40 and 50% more people in 2020. Last year, we helped between 26,000 and 28,000 people in the department.

This year, we will greatly explode the ceiling of 30,000 people ”, deplores Marie-Françoise Thull, general secretary of the association in Moselle and member of the national office of Secours populaire.

Has the beneficiary public changed with the crisis?

Single-parent families, elderly people, foreign workers, but also temporary workers, the self-employed, students, home helpers, people with disabilities or even artisans ... With the health crisis, many have fallen into precariousness, and in particular people who were not not known to the welfare association before: “What has changed is the type of audience.

Before, the beneficiaries were people who can be described as marginal.

With the crisis, we have helped many more families with children, sometimes very young, and not necessarily single-parent families, ”explains Marie-Françoise Thull.

"There are a lot of people who have lost their jobs, people in interim or who had not contributed enough, applicants for the RSA", she adds.

The other audience is obviously the students.

Hit hard by the crisis, many have lost their odd jobs.

“On the Metz campus, we help between 200 and 300 students per week.

For the most part, these are young people between the ages of 18 and 22 who are far from home, who have no resources.

We have also seen many students with disabilities who are not taken care of, ”continues the general secretary of the association in Moselle.

“We come to situations that I had never seen before.

The poor have become even poorer.

Between the first and the second confinement, the situation worsened significantly.

People who were in a precarious situation have fallen into poverty, even extreme poverty, that is the real impact of the crisis, ”regrets Marie-Françoise Thull.

Has the Secours populaire received any aid?

"The first help is first and foremost that of the volunteers," rejoices the member of the association's national office, welcoming the influx of young people who have come to lend a hand in Moselle.

Since the start of the crisis, 5,000 new volunteers, 25% of whom are under 25, have joined the 81,855 volunteers of Secours populaire in France.

As for donations, "we were helped more than we imagined at the start," admits Marie-François Thull.

“There were a lot of donations from individuals, more than usual.

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But that's not all, Secours populaire has also benefited from institutional aid: "The European Union has doubled the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived (FEAD) and the State has paid us substantial subsidies", she admits.

Are these aids sufficient?

" Unfortunately no.

Despite everything, we lack the means, because the needs are greater and greater.

People need food aid, but they also need help paying their rent, electricity, heating.

The Secours populaire has never paid as many bills as since the start of the crisis, ”laments the secretary general, who fears that the coming months will further aggravate poverty in France.

Globally, the UN estimates that the Covid-19 pandemic could tip, by the end of 2020, more than 130 million additional people into hunger around the world.

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  • People Relief

  • Poverty

  • Society

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid 19

  • Crisis

  • Precariousness