FOOD CHECK. Payment of the food check will take place from the start of the 2022 school year. For whom? What exact amount? All the answers to your questions.
[Mis à jour le 29 juin 2022 à 08h17] The purchasing power of the French being undermined due to galloping inflation (5.2% in May over one year), the government has decided to set up the food check in 2022, in the small papers since now two years. This food voucher should be the subject of consultation with the opposition groups in the National Assembly, before being presented to the Council of Ministers on July 6. It will not be part of the purchasing power bill bringing together other key measures in favor of the household purse such as the tripling of the Macron bonus or the increase in pensions. On the other hand, it will be on the program of the amending finance bill and paid from September 2022 automatically into the bank account of the beneficiaries, without any action on their part.
The amount of the food check should be 100 euros plus 50 euros per additional dependent child. It should concern 9 million households according to The echoes. Beneficiaries entitled to RSA, AAH,ASPA and APLs could benefit from it (benefits which will increase by approximately 4% as of July 1, 2022). An encrypted maneuver 1 billion euros. The executive is also thinking very seriously about setting up a “helps to eat better“. The objective? To help low-income households to consume quality, French, organic products, while promoting short circuits. The details of this other device have not yet been decided. Originally, the food check was to include this notion of healthy and organic products, but due to the complexity of its implementation and the current economic emergency, these notions are postponed until later.
If Emmanuel Macron is re-elected and sets up this new aid, the food check should be a device aimed at the most deprived people. Emmanuel Macron spoke of “lower classes” and “middle classes” at France Bleu on March 22, 2022. What will be the criteria? Will there be a threshold of reference tax income not to exceed ? For the moment, these questions have not yet been arbitrated. At this stage, several leads are on the table. In 2021, the Ministry of the Economy defended the idea that the system be entrusted to the municipal centers for social action (CCAS), thus targeting 5 million beneficiaries, a track also presented by the citizens of the Citizens’ Convention in their report.
The Minister of Agriculture, he leaned more towards aid for “young people or families with children on low incomes”, in the form of a check or card. The idea is also carried by the deputy of Paris, Mounir Mahjoubi, who defends a project close to that of Julien Denormandie.
The amount of the food check is not yet known but should be between 100 and 150 euros. “The total budget could then rise from a few hundred million to two billion euros”, MP Mounir Mahjoubi had indicated in February 2021 to West France. “Afterwards, this will come into confrontation with other proposals, such as specific allocations for the Covid period. This is the whole subject of the discussions which are taking place at governmental level”, he added then. The powerful agricultural union FNSEA offers a device that would allow you to spend 5 euros a day.
The project which should however be retained is an automatic payment from the start of the 2022 school year. 100 euros, plus 50 euros per dependent child.
The payment of the food check was planned for the start of the 2022 school year, but its implementation proved to be more complex than expected for the executive. Budget Minister Gabriel Attal “hopes to be able to present this measure in 2023”. For the time being, no precise date has been communicated, and the food check will be replaced in 2022 by a new inflation bonus of 150 euros, paid at the start of the 2022 school year.
The Minister of Agriculture Marc Fesneau gave him a period: “October-November”. However, this period simply corresponds to the debates concerning the finance law. The food voucher should therefore not see the light of day before the end of 2022. The hypothesis of the first quarter of 2023 is, for the time being, more plausible.
The Family Allowance Fund does not currently allocate food vouchers nationwide but could be the body responsible for this system, linked to the social aid it already pays. At the local level, certain food aid schemes can already be put in place. It is advisable to contact the social action department of your fund. On its dedicated site, the Caf de Saône-et-Loire notably highlighted the implementation of one-off aid in April 2020, in order to help the most deprived to buy basic food products. The device was then aimed at beneficiaries of family benefits, APL, RSA and the activity bonus.
The priority of Emmanuel Macron and his government is fruit and vegetables. And French if possible, from short circuits, and organic! Products qualified as “healthy”. This food check could be used in the supermarket or on the stalls of your local markets.