Grande-Synthe (France) (AFP)

"Before, we survived, today we live again ..." Dalila Sayah can blow: for three months, this resident of Grande-Synthe (North) has the social minimum guaranteed (MSG), a social assistance presented as unique in France whose vocation is to "restore dignity" to the most precarious.

Overnight, this former secretary found herself unemployed due to serious health problems. "My life rocked, I had only 860 euros a month, with two children, I lived with a ball in my stomach, and by the 15th of the month I had nothing left, I was crying", she says. to AFP.

Since the beginning of May, she has been receiving an additional 394 euros under the MSG, an optional and temporary social assistance - up to six months, renewable - introduced by the municipality for its most precarious inhabitants, the amount of which varies according to income.

"I live again," says Dalila, showing in her kitchen the household products she can now buy. "I pay my bills, I eat ... Like everyone else, especially, I found my dignity and my autonomy."

Set up under the leadership of Damien Carême, former ecologist mayor now European deputy, the MSG is intended for households with no income sufficient to reach the poverty line (50% of the median income), or 855 euros per consumption unit . A situation that would affect 17.2% of the approximately 24,000 inhabitants.

"We have a population suffering with more than 25% of unemployed", which implies "to find alternative solutions because of the social difficulty in the Dunkirk Basin," said Mayor (PS) Martial Beyaert, according to which " Grande-Synthe is a laboratory of ideas ".

"There are things that are not done elsewhere," he says, noting that he has been contacted by cities interested in this device.

- "New momentum" -

Since it was set up, some 400 people have benefited from this system, to which 1.2 million euros were allocated by the municipality from May to December, partly financed by the energy savings made by the city (472,000 euros ) and the end of some aid of the Municipal Center for Social Action (CCAS) replaced de facto by the MSG (for less than 300,000 euros).

"The first return is a satisfaction because people find dignity, freedom in consumption.This empowers them much more in the budget management," said Juan Manuel Del Pozo, director of the CCAS, who accompanies the inhabitants in their efforts .

The idea is to help people "get out of a form of social anxiety". "They will have more visibility and we can work with them the social and professional integration", affirmed to AFP Mr. Carême recently, seeing in the MSG "a form of solidarity palliating the deficiencies of the State".

Sarah Sabri (not her real name), 39, says she is "relieved" to be able to "put aside". "It gave me a new momentum, I anticipate more," says the mother of seven, who receives 580 euros of help.

She also says she has found confidence in herself. "Before, I used food vouchers in store but the eyes of others bothered me.Now I can pay directly and in addition it allows me to pay my rent.

- Contract and controls -

However, the device is not one-way: a contract of attribution fixes the conditions and the aid is stopped if they are not respected.

"People commit themselves to participate in the project of social support, to inform us of any change of situation which would impact the amount and to incur the expenditure in the domains fixed in the code of the social action and the families: rents, energy, schooling of children ... ", explains Mr. Del Pozo. Checks are planned to counter any abuse.

In the face of criticism of a form of "assistanat", Dalila Sayah is shocked. "People daring to say that are not human, they should put themselves in our place, if I could work, I would not be there," she says.

© 2019 AFP