Remove APLs? The government “denies” wanting to touch housing assistance

Eliminate housing assistance? The five-euro cut on the APL announced in July 2017 caused an outcry and marked the very beginning of Macron's first five-year term as that of a “president of the rich” and disconnected. So after a minister told Paris Match that the APLs “are of no use” and that majority deputies assume they want to review the system, the government hastened to put out the start of the fire this Thursday March 21st. “I saw this flourish yesterday,” admitted Minister for Public Accounts Thomas Cazenave on Franceinfo, before “categorically” denying the information. “There are no plans to reform, eliminate or cut public housing assistance.”

In an article in the weekly, a minister whose name is not mentioned nevertheless criticizes the APL: “It costs us nearly 14 billion euros per year. And this money goes directly into the pockets of the owners. A Renaissance MP agreed with this, estimating that housing aid - of which the APL is the best known - "does not help to lower prices", pointing to it as an avenue for the 20 billion savings that the government wishes to find with Parliament for the 2025 budget.

Housing aid (APL, ALS and ALF), paid to the most modest households and modulated according to their income level, cost 15.4 billion euros in 2022, according to a report from the Ministry of Ecological Transition. An amount “in decline for the sixth consecutive year”, helped by the drop in the number of beneficiaries. There were 5.5 million to receive one of the three aids in 2022, including 2.5 million for the APL alone. The latter amounted, on average, to 219 euros per month per household.

The mechanism for calculating APL was modified in 2021, to take into account the income of the last twelve rolling months rather than the income of year n-2 from the tax notice. The government hoped for a billion euros in savings, but the reform turned out to be less profitable than expected. In October 2023, APLs had also been revalued by 3.5% to adhere to the “rent shield” which limited increases below the level of inflation.

Seven years after the fiasco of the five euros less on the APL, the trauma remains intact in the presidential camp, which therefore does not seem ready to risk another blow. Faced with students in 2019, Emmanuel Macron admitted “dragging [this measure] like a ball and chain”.