This first day of 2025 will be marked by multiple developments, some likely to impact your purchasing power. From the increase in retirement pensions to the implementation of the value sharing system in SMEs, including the launch of a new health record for children, here is what changes on January 1st.
Basic pensions increased by 2.2%
The subject had ignited the political debate, to the point of censorship: basic pensions were increased by 2.2% this Wednesday, in line with inflation as provided for by law, compared to 0.8% initially planned by the former Barnier government to save money. For a basic pension of 1,200 euros for example, this increase represents an increase of 26.4 euros per month, which will be visible on the February payment.
Good news for retirees, but not for public finances: the 2024 increase alone cost the pension branch 15.6 billion euros, according to a senatorial report. The 2025 increase (+ 2.2%) will cost an additional 6.5 billion, according to the Ministry of Budget and Public Accounts.
The most energy-intensive housing considered indecent
From Wednesday, the most energy-intensive accommodations are classified as indecent and can no longer be rented, which upsets owners, worried about having renovation work imposed on them, despite great vagueness around the application of this measure.
Adopted in 2021, the Climate and Resilience Law plans to gradually consider housing with poor energy performance as indecent. First of all, it was housing classified G + in the energy performance diagnosis (DPE) which was deemed indecent in 2023. It is now the turn of classes G from January 1, before housing F in 2028, then E in 2034.
The law obliges landlords to provide the tenant with decent housing. If this is not the case, the latter can request work from the owner, contact a judge if necessary to make the lessor comply and obtain a reduction in rent or the suspension of its payment while awaiting the work. No termination of lease is provided for by law in the event of indecency, and if a landlord tries to discharge a tenant who has filed an appeal, this may be considered abusive.
A bill aimed at clarifying the text and adapting the timetable to the constraints of co-ownerships was presented at the end of October to the National Assembly, but its examination has been blocked since the censorship of the Barnier government.
Sharing value: small businesses will have to get up to speed
From January 1, companies with 11 to 49 employees having achieved a net tax profit of at least 1% of their turnover over the last three years will have to set up a value sharing system. But according to a recent Ifop survey carried out for the consulting company Primeum in June, 57% of affected small and medium-sized businesses surveyed were unaware of this new obligation.
Until now, this law only applied to companies with 50 or more employees, forced to redistribute part of their profits to their employees through a participation agreement. If small businesses will have the choice between four schemes, including the participation bonus, it is the value sharing bonus (PPV), ex-“Macron bonus”, capped at 3,000 or 6,000 euros per person depending on certain conditions, which could be favored as a priority by SMEs for its simplicity.
RSA beneficiaries all registered with France Travail
From January, all beneficiaries of the Active Solidarity Income (RSA) will be registered with France Travail (compared to 40% today) and will have to sign an “engagement contract” specifying social and professional integration objectives. .
With this reform, 1.2 million additional people will be automatically registered as job seekers, including 200,000 young people in the integration process in the local missions of the departments. These new job seekers will first be placed in a newly created “waiting category” called G, until they are distributed into one of the categories from A to F at the end of their orientation interview, the Category F is also new and reserved for people “in the process of social integration”, according to France Travail and the Ministries of Labor and Solidarity.
A new health record for children
A new health record for children will come into force on January 1, introducing new advice to parents, particularly on the use of screens and a new compulsory examination at the age of six.
In this revised version, the twenty mandatory health examinations are all detailed, the General Directorate of Health (DGS) indicated in a press release on Friday. For each age, benchmarks are offered to parents to situate the child in his development (social, cognitive, motor), with messages of prevention in the face of “scientific and societal developments”.
They will find advice on raising their child without violence, tables on the introduction of foods, advice on sleep or benchmarks for detecting neurodevelopmental disorders. The new health record now includes questions concerning the practice of physical activity up to adolescence as well as exposure and then use of screens, “in a process of identification by the health professional of the misuse of screens “.