Auditors demand dole payments cut

DOLE payouts for France’s 3.13 million unemployed are too high and must be cut, says the state audit office, the Cour des Comptes.

The Cour said unemployment insurance agency Unedic would have a €5billion deficit this year alone if nothing was done and called for a switch to introduce measures to help “the most vulnerable, those with little training or in insecure jobs”.

French dole benefits are seen widely in Europe as generous and the Cour said payouts, especially to those on short-term contracts, were “difficult to sustain” with €1bn going to just 3% of claimants.

Unedic will have built up a €18.6bn deficit by the end of this year if nothing is done and the auditors criticised both companies for cutting jobs, rather than moving to shorter working hours, and politicians for continuing with “obsolete policy instruments” to tackle the jobs crisis.

However, the Cour also said people were being kept in insecure jobs while gaining a “sustainable supplementary income” from benefits.

Employment Minister Michel Sapin said this morning he would “take action” to resolve the situation “and find solutions to return to a reasonable deficit”. But he added that “a high unemployment benefits budget in times of high unemployment is not unusual”.

Jobless numbers rose 29,300 to a near 15-year high in December of 3.13m and the Cour des Comptes said France needed a complete revision of the system to make it fairer and less expensive.

It said that with persistently high unemployment, France’s employment policies were “largely inadequate” and said companies had responded by cutting the jobs of staff on CDD contracts instead of changing working practices – a move that had helped Germany out of the same situation.

This is set to change under this month’s “historic” new deal between company management and unions. Bosses will be able to negotiate lower pay and reduced working hours when the planned bill is introduced, possibly in March.