Inflation: why does the Familles Rurales association demand 65 euros per month for the most modest?

Alexandre Dalifard 5:23 p.m., February 22, 2023

How to protect the most modest households from inflation?

Each year, the Familles Rurales association, which acts in favor of families throughout the territory,

publishes a price observatory.

Available since Wednesday, it indicates a sharp rise in prices over the past 12 months.

An increase that has been widely observed by all French people.

Faced with this, the association decided to contact the Minister of Health and Prevention in order to support a measure to help the most precarious families to eat "correctly".

This consists of paying an allowance of 65 euros per month to the most modest households.

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Gross products less impacted by inflation

Based on Insee prices, inflation on food products reached just over 12%.

The logic of the Rural Families Association

is to follow the recommendations of the State which, in particular through a National Health Nutrition Program (PNNS), explains that it is advisable to eat at least five fruits and vegetables per day and per person.

“We therefore base ourselves on these recommendations to establish a basket that complies with what the Minister of Health expects us to eat to be in good health”, indicates Nadia Ziane, consumption director of the association Familles Rurales.

"This basket, when we take these products, only increases by 8% in the end. That is to say that the more you consume raw products, the less inflation there is. This is very logically explained. As you are not on processed products, you have a lower number of intermediaries and therefore a more contained inflation of prices”, she explains.

The food budget represents 16.3% of the income of families at the poverty line

Taking the minimum of what the PNNS recommends, the food basket costs 477 euros per month.

"What worries us is that for the 9 million most precarious households, they do not have the economic means to spend this sum", laments Nadia Ziane.

In order to define the poverty line, the association bases itself on a family made up of two adults and two children.

If this family earns 2,585 euros per month, it is considered to be at the poverty line.

"For their food budget, they devote 16.3%. This percentage, for a family which is at the poverty line, represents 413 euros. There is therefore a differential which is not neutral", she specifies to the microphone from Europe 1 noon.

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A measure that could save the French state

While the government advises everyone to eat healthy in order to be in good health and in particular to prevent health insurance from covering health costs, the most precarious families do not necessarily have the means.

"This is the reason why, this year, we decided to call on the Minister of Health and Prevention to invest more in prevention, it's in his name", explains the consumption director of the association. .

According to the Directorate General of the Treasury, 20 billion euros are spent each year to treat pathologies that can be avoided. 

"The measure we support, helping families with an allowance of 65 euros per month, would cost the state 7.2 billion euros. We can therefore invest this sum so that people eat healthily and we avoid to spend 20 billion euros. We walk a little on the head when we realize that the Ministry of Health speaks very little on the subject of food", indignant Nadia Ziane.

It remains to be seen whether Bercy will see things the same way.