Paris (AFP)

The anti-poverty plan of the government, announced a year ago, gives "first concrete results" according to the government, a birthday marked Tuesday by a visit of Emmanuel Macron in a project of integration through economic activity (IAE ).

To "take stock of the actions taken" and discuss the "progress" and "prospects" of this strategy with 8.5 billion euros, the ministers in charge of the file together Thursday and Friday community leaders or local elected officials in Aubervilliers (Seine-Saint-Denis).

The Head of State, for his part, met Tuesday at an IAE site in Bonneuil-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne) trainers and apprentices of Ateliers Sans Frontières (ASF), which welcomes more 120 young people and adults a year to achieve "a stable personal and professional situation".

The government wants to reinforce such schemes: the budget for the IAE will pass the one billion euro mark in 2020 - against 900 million this year - in order to be able to finance 20,000 additional jobs for people very far from employment announced Labor Minister Muriel Penicaud.

While the poverty rate reaches 14.1% of the population (8.9 million poor, according to INSEE statistics published Tuesday), the first anniversary of the anti-poverty strategy "should not be a time of self-satisfaction ", highlight the Minister of Solidarity, Agnès Buzyn, and the Secretary of State in charge of the file, Christelle Dubos.

"In one year, we have not changed everything," told AFP a government source. "But there were some very concrete measures that had an immediate impact," the source added.

For example, the revaluation of the activity premium, aid for low-income workers, which now benefits more than 4 million people and whose recourse rate is estimated at more than 80%.

The government also emphasizes the creation of crèche places in sensitive neighborhoods - which should help to reduce later school inequalities - or financial assistance paid by the state to "small fragile communities" who adopt a social pricing system. their canteens, in order to offer meals at one euro.

- "Shy advanced" -

In addition, 100,000 students will benefit this fall from free breakfasts at school, 160 new social centers must be built in the neighborhoods in difficulty that were lacking, and 150 "points advice budget" - out of 400 planned from here the end of the five-year period - must help families avoid over-indebtedness.

Since 1 April, some 700,000 beneficiaries of the RSA have no further steps to make to renew their complementary universal health coverage (CMU). And on November 1st, this CMU-C will be merged with the Payment Assistance of complementary health (ACS), to improve access to care for the poor.

In terms of social benefits, the government recently opened two projects promised by Emmanuel Macron: that of a universal income of activity (RUA), which would merge several allowances, and that of a public service of the insertion, aimed at universalize support for the most excluded, including the 1.8 million beneficiaries of the RSA.

These two consultations will lead to a draft law "poverty" which should be presented in 2020.

Even before the government presented its assessment of the first twelve months of action, several associations against poverty on Monday made a record "very mixed", making "tentative progress" and "setbacks some".

According to these associations gathered within the Alerte collective, including ATD Fourth World, Emmaus France and the Abbé Pierre Foundation, the purchasing power of the poorest people has decreased "following the decline of the LPAs and the de-indexation of housing and housing allowances. family benefits ".

They demand "strong commitments" for the most precarious, such as the revaluation of the RSA or emergency housing measures, before the implementation of the RUA in 2023.

© 2019 AFP