Social Security Budget: Senate Approves Revenue but Must Secure €3.2 billion in Savings

Unlike the National Assembly, the Senate adopted the revenue part of the Social Security budget on Friday evening before beginning examination of the expenditure side, on which the senatorial majority intends to make savings to compensate for the shortfall resulting from the measures voted on in recent days. The Minister of Action and Public Accounts, David Amiel, put it at 3.2 billion euros between the government's initial text and the senators' vote. However, he underlined "the desire of the senatorial majority" to "maintain the balances of the financing law".

The president of the Social Affairs Committee, Philippe Mouiller (LR), confirmed this intention, referring in particular to transfers of expenses currently borne by Social Security to complementary health insurance, as well as the "suspension of the pension reform". The senators adopted the revenue part by 200 votes to 110. The left and the RN voted against.

Since the start of the debates, the senatorial majority of the right and the center has shown its desire to control the Social Security deficit, while refusing too significant an increase in taxation. The objective of reducing the deficit abandoned It thus deviated from the government objective of a deficit of 12.7 billion euros in 2027. An exceptional contribution on complementary health insurance, which was to bring in 1.1 billion euros, was eliminated, as was a tax on pharmacy groups.

The contribution of companies on their general contribution reductions was postponed to April 1 by amendment, in order to give the government time to carry out consultations after the social conference on Monday. The government estimates the cost of this postponement at 500 million euros. The senators also wanted to give the departments a boost of 400 million euros, faithful to their status as chamber of territories.

But the Senate intends to compensate for these losses by acting mainly on expenditure, but also in the draft state budget examined from November 20. The debate around the efforts of retirees promises to be particularly crucial, with the probable reinstatement by the senatorial majority of the pension reform suspended last year, which should bring in 600 million euros in the Senate's vision. Senators should also vote for the reindexation of all retirement pensions to inflation, but they promise to compensate for this decision with an increased effort around the flat-rate allowance for professional expenses from which retirees benefit, a measure contained in the state budget.

Machine-translated from French