• Faced with inflation and rising food prices, the government is considering creating a food voucher.
  • This would be the third cheque in a few months from the government, after the fuel cheque and the energy cheque.
  • A process appreciated by the government, but which struggles to be unanimous.

Faced with problems, the government seems to have two favorite solutions: the toll-free number, worn to the marrow during the health crisis, and the check. After the fuel check and the energy check, the executive intends to experiment with a food check in the coming months, said Monday the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire. A project already mentioned in 2022.

The goal: to help the poorest to do their shopping in the middle of a period of inflation. But why is the government so fond of this aid, instead of using other means?

A targeted cheque but sometimes difficult to access

First advantage, "the check, it is visible and concrete, you can touch it with your finger. It helps send the signal that the government is acting and is taking action," said Angela Sutan, an experimental economics researcher and professor at the Burgundy School of Business. The second good point by Louis Maurin, sociologist specializing in poverty and director of the Observatory of inequalities: to target only a part of the population. "We have seen it with the rebates on gasoline for everyone: untargeted offers are extremely expensive and are a sinkhole in public spending. Cheques make it possible to concern only a part of the population - the one who needs it most - and not to scatter aid. »

But the process has its perverse effects. If we do not yet know the modalities of
this food check, except that it "will be done on a territorial basis, probably the department", dixit Bercy, the one around fuel, unlike the energy check, required to apply with an online form. "Only half (of eligible people) asked for it, because of the digital bill but also because of the signal of precariousness and a 'shame' to ask for help," says Angela Sutan. Without accusing the government, we can still estimate that the cheque, if you have to go get it, allows less expense than it seems, since not everyone will apply."

More structural responses required

Speaking of expenses, the repeated use of cheques makes it possible to carry out "one shots" rather than longer-term actions. "For the energy voucher, for example, we resonate in hundreds of euros when the amount of the bill for a consumer is in the thousands. It is often insufficient aid," says Noam Leandri, president of Alerte, a collective of 34 solidarity associations.



Associations that demand structural responses and not economic aid: "Small cheques are starting to do well. We must raise the social minima, at least to the level of inflation, and preferably more. We are talking about a 14% price increase on energy or food. It's not checks that will settle that," says Noma Leandri.

Towards a gas plant

Louis Maurin has the same observation: "The government tends to multiply cheques and turn them into a kind of gas factory of great complexity, whereas there is a very simple element in this country: minimum social benefits. Today, they are 500 euros, and who can admit to living decently with such a sum? We have many structural tools on which to act: the RSA, the family allowance, the housing allowance, the specific solidarity allowance..."

The Observatory of Inequalities campaigns for a single minimum income (RMU), from the age of 18, of 900 euros per month. "The estimated budget is estimated at 7 billion, or a third of the cost of abolishing the housing tax, and this would avoid checks in all directions," argues Louis Maurin.

Paternalism in aid?

The last criticism made of the cheque is that of imposing a specific purchase within a specific period of time. For example, the fuel voucher (for fuel) is only valid until March 2023. "It helps people less because it constrains them in their spending. They cannot necessarily target what they really need. This is also why the government favors checks, because it reassures on the use made of this money, author of many clichés, "says Angela Sutan.

"There is a certain paternalism in wanting to predefine how precarious people will be able to access aid. As if without it, they would spend their money badly, laments Noam Leandri. This prevents you from managing your budget over several months and smoothing it out. Unless there is a blank cheque, the government is still struggling to convince.

  • Economy
  • Feeding
  • Energy voucher
  • Consumption
  • Consumers
  • Government