Paris (AFP)

The Secretary of State for People with Disabilities Sophie Cluzel announced Wednesday the creation in 2020 of a "platform of respite" for caregivers, these millions of people who care daily for a sick, elderly or disabled relative, and "ask to be able to blow".

Prime Minister Édouard Philippe is expected to present in the late morning with Mrs. Cluzel and the Minister of Health Agnès Buzyn a plan to "act for carers".

According to the government, this "strategy", which will cover the period 2020-2022, must "recognize their role and improve their quality of life".

According to official figures, 8.3 million people in France regularly help a loved one with a loss of autonomy. According to the associations, they would be in the order of 11 million.

Being a caregiver, this "nibbles daily time, sometimes upsets the professional life," said Sophie Cluzel France Inter, stressing that they are "a pillar of this fraternal society, caring, solidarity".

The state must be able to "accompany and take care of their health", she continued, announcing the "creation of a platform of respite to give them home solutions" for their loved one.

The caregivers "ask us to be able to breathe, to be able to take a weekend," she said, evoking places in respite homes, in adapted establishments or the "relaying" solution, where a professional goes consecutive days at the home of the assisted person, allowing her loved one to rest.

By 2022, some 200,000 "solutions" of additional respite, double that currently, will be created, added Cluzel, adding that 105 million euros will be spent for 2020-2022.

"Everyone does not need a break, is not in an intensity of help," she added, referring to carers who have a professional life.

For these paid carers, who represent around 60% of caregivers, she recalled the creation from October 2020 of a three-month compensated leave, fractional.

Employed carers who take days may be compensated by Social Security up to 43.52 euros per day for a person in a couple, 52 for a single person. About 200,000 people could claim.

© 2019 AFP