The law on society’s adaptation to ageing was brought up for final vote at the National Assembly last December 10, then in the Senate on December 14, thus terminating after a year of delays, the long process of social dialogue and complex legislative debates.
Thus far, this law has gone unnoticed, especially since it only brings a partial solution to the financial burden for charges related to retirement homes and the dependency of very elderly people. A second law was originally planned to treat these questions, but due to the state of public finances, no specific perspective is currently being evoked.
In order to foster home care, the principal objective of this first law, a global budget of more than 700 million Euros is planned. The key provision consists in revising the funding of the Personal Autonomy Allocation, attributed to 600,000 vulnerable people living at home. The monthly limits will be revalorized, in order to increase the number of hours of help available for elderly people who need it the most and to reduce their financial participation.
Eighty thousand private housing units will be modified by 2017 and the valorization of “Autonomous Residences” (previously called lodging foyers, with 110,000 places in 2,200 establishments) is also planned. Numerous other measures concern governance and collaboration of entities qualified in this domain, as well as for the provision of assistance to individuals.
The most symbolic measure is the creation of « a statutory right to respite for the care givers». Among the 4.3 million care-givers who take care of a dependant or handicapped loved one, approximately 800,000 look after Personal Autonomy Allocation beneficiaries in their homes. To allow these care-givers a rest and to avoid the unfortunate all too frequent exhaustion, an annual allocation reaching as much as 500 € would permit financing a stay for those individuals with a significant loss of autonomy to stay in temporary lodging or a center for daily care. Family-related leave provided for currently under labor laws, has also been converted to “care-givers leave”.
