Les principes du revenu de solidarité active au regard des expériences étrangères

Abstract

The principles of «revenu de solidarité active » in light of other countries’ experience. The revenu de solidarité active (RSA or working solidarity income) is a major reform in French social protection. Firstly, it replaced the minimum welfare benefits paid to people of a working age, along with the associated bonus mechanisms and has been added to the calculation of the «prime pour l’emploi » . Secondly, it is a significant income supplement for poor workers, with the objective being both to ensure financial support and to prompt a return to work. Based on a comparison with US and UK measures (the EITC and WTC and CTC respectively) which have long been contingent on employment-related benefits, the authors attempt better to understand the expected effects from the RSA. Thanks to the MYRIADE microsimulation model developed by the Caisse nationale des allocations familiales, an ex-ante assessment of this measure and of several alternative scenarii is presented with emphasis on the role played by each component in the scale.