AAH reform: the winners of the reform of the Adult Disabled Allowance

According to INSEE, 150,000 households saw their resources increase with the deconjugalization of the Allowance for Disabled Adults which took place on October 1, 2023. For all AAH beneficiaries, the average benefit reached 237 euros per month.

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A social justice measure intended to strengthen the financial autonomy of people with disabilities living as a couple. The deconjugalization ofAAHthat is to say the removal of the taking into account of spouse’s resources in the calculation of the Allowance for disabled adults, took place on October 1, 2023. But has the reform had the expected effects? In part, according to statistics revealed Thursday November 21 by INSEE in its social portrait of France (2024 edition).

Thus, the approximately 200,000 households affected by the demarcation of this financial assistance benefit from a total increase in disposable income of 580 million euros, for a average gain of 2,840 euros in a full year, once the reform “fully ramped up, that is to say without taking into account the transitional system of maintaining the conjugal calculation, when this is more favorable for people already beneficiaries of the AAH at the time of the implementation of reform”specifies INSEE.

Losers among the new modest beneficiaries

On paper, these households therefore see their resources increase by 237 euros per month on average. But summarizing the effects of calculation reform from the Allowance for Disabled Adults to this statistic would be an erroneous shortcut, since among the couples targeted by the measure, 150,000 were winners… and 50,000 lost. “The people who benefit from AAH deconjugalization are mainly located between the 4th and 9th decile of standard of living”observe the authors of the study. At the other end of the spectrum, “the losers are concentrated in the first three tenths of the standard of living”.

More precisely, in this category of households (the least well-off 30%), a new AAH beneficiary in a relationship with a person whose income is lower than their own is penalized. “The couple’s combined income would have been lower than the combined resources ceiling in force before the reform, but the beneficiary exceeds the new individualized benefit ceiling with their individual income”explains the institute. Because as a reminder, couple households who were already receiving this financial assistance on October 1, 2023 benefit from the most advantageous calculation option, taking or not taking into account the spouse’s income. A preferential treatment of which the new beneficiaries are therefore deprived of the AAH.