Several million households will benefit from a significant government boost just before the year-end holidays. Another surprise is planned for hundreds of thousands of households.
The winter wind brings with it good news for Christmas. Although the holiday season at the end of the year is often synonymous with gifts, huge meals and pleasant moments spent with family or friends, it also involves significant expenses. A heavy blow to the portfolio that comes while the inflation phenomenon is still going on. This situation causes anxiety in millions of French people every year.
According to a study conducted by Ifop in 2022, “34% of households fear that they do not have enough money to buy gifts for Christmas”. The same study shows that most respondents opted for useful gifts, such as clothes or accessories, taking advantage of the holiday season to make purchases already planned during the year.
Faced with this observation, the government is planning two key measures to support the purchasing power of several million French people. The first measure is an already well-known system that allows a certain amount of money to be paid annually to a large number of households. The second measure is the bonus added to the first device. This allowance will be added to the amount allocated to specific beneficiaries.
Called the Christmas bonus, the first state aid in question is intended for more than 2.3 million people. The Christmas card, which is 152.45 euros for a single person, can be increased depending on the composition of the household that receives it. The amount awarded can be EUR 228.67 for a couple, EUR 274.41 for a couple with one child, EUR 320.14 for a couple with two children, and then add EUR 60.98 per additional dependent child.
However, this year, the traditional Christmas bonus is being added with exceptional help. Namely, the state plans to award an additional bonus to certain bonus users. And it will not be couples who will benefit from it, but single-parent families.
With this measure, between 115 and 200 euros will be added to the Christmas allowance received by single people with at least one dependent child. The greater the number of children, the more mechanically the bonus increases. A total of 600,000 single-parent families – 82% of whom are women – will receive this new aid.
So, while a single person with three dependent children normally receives 335.39 euros in Christmas allowance, this year he will receive 535.39 euros. To benefit from the Christmas bonus and allowance, you must be in receipt of RSA or other social benefits paid by ASS, ASS-F, AER or RFPE.
This extension of the Christmas allowance intended for single-parent families was proposed by way of an amendment by Socialist MPs, inserted into the end-of-administration funding bill for 2023, considered in the Parliament. With the support of the presidential majority, the National Assembly adopted the measure. If the idea does not survive the examination of the text in the Senate, the presidential party has already committed to submit it to the Assembly for final reading.