Nearly a third of French people live on less than 100 euros from the 10th of the month

Reduction of the food budget but also lack of sleep, stress or even depression... According to a study carried out by Ifop for My little package, the effects of inflation would have more incidences on the daily life of the French than what the one could imagine. One of the most impressive figures of this study concerns the "remainder to live" of the respondents once the mandatory expenses have been deducted. From the 10th of the month, 31% of them find themselves with less than 100 euros in their bank account, including 10% who have nothing left. A proportion that explodes among people most in psychological distress, since this reality concerns 47% of people suffering from suicidal thoughts.

More generally, 56% of those surveyed admit to having difficulty living with their household income according to the study, which points to a "significant increase" of 7 points in this proportion compared to January 2023. This reality is materializing from elsewhere, for 34% of them, by the impossibility of paying the charges related to their accommodation, such as gas and electricity bills, on time. That is a proportion up by 5 points in eighteen months (29% in October 2021). And unsurprisingly, it is the people in the most financial difficulty who display the most widespread anxiety-depressive disorders such as anxiety (54%) or depression (31%).

"The current price spike is not only cutting corners on the material living conditions of the poorest French people, but also weakening their mental health: anxiety-depressive disorders are much more frequent in the fraction of the population most in financial difficulty regardless of the indicator selected", explains François Kraus, the director of the political pole of Ifop, who ensures that this survey highlights "the link between precariousness and psychological distress" with sleep disorders, anxiety even a depressive state "in a context where inflation is forcing more and more people to tighten their belts".

And if 42% of respondents note an increase in prices on all types of products, they are up to 82% to have felt an increase in food products, and 77% on gasoline and 75% on oil prices. energy. As a direct consequence, the proportion of French people who have reduced their food expenditure for financial reasons has doubled in the space of fifteen years, going from 29% in 2007 to 58% in 2023. Worse, for the same reasons, one in two people surveyed even come to “skip meals” (51%, 7 points since June 2022), 28% of whom do so quite regularly.

These practices are all the more worrying since the study highlights that half of the people questioned (50%) in the context of this study confide that they sometimes give up certain medical care for lack of money. A proportion up 6 points compared to last year. In fact, the number of people who say they have postponed certain health expenses in the last twelve months has almost doubled: even if they remain a minority, they are now 41% who have done so, compared to 25% a year ago. fifteen years, in 2007.

In this context, respondents seem very critical of the policy implemented by the government on this subject. A large majority of French people (73%) believe that the Borne government is not doing enough to fight against rising prices. A figure that must still be qualified, since 24% of them still believe that the State “acts as it should” in this area, against 16% in October 2022.

"Inflation places, day after day, those who experience it in a position of helplessness", wrote the French psychoanalyst Claude Halmos on this subject in Le Monde, who also explains that this feeling of helplessness "can also, if not hindered by shame, to provoke anger”. However, according to her, insofar as inflation affects the whole of the French population, the latter feels completely "legitimate to express it, as they have done in the recent demonstrations", thus showing the "the depth of the repercussions that the measures which modify the reality of their lives have on them".