"The last few years have been shaken by large-scale social movements such as the "Yellow Vests" and crossed by mutations, brutal adaptations of the social environment notably caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Questions about the social impacts of these crises have underlined the need to complete the range of analytical tools with approaches that can capture the evolution of society, including its less visible aspects, and at the same time shorten the time between the unfolding of events and their recording by a measuring device. In addition to quantified analyses that take into account the material conditions of existence, it seems essential to open the "black box of expectations, anger and fears" that run through society in order to be better able to anticipate its evolution, to capture the "weak signals", as much as possible in real time.
[National Council on Poverty and Exclusion Policies].
The Prime Minister has charged the National Council on Policies to Combat Poverty and Exclusion (CNLE) " to enrich qualitative knowledge of the evolution of poverty".
After the publication, in May 2021, of a report combining quantitative frameworks and qualitative studies, the CNLE has undertaken to develop a "qualitative barometer to enrich the usual quantitative approach to measuring poverty" , with a view to " producing an updated knowledge of the categories of the population facing various difficulties and the social affects that cross these publics".
The Barometer for qualitative monitoring of poverty and social exclusion is based on the work of researchers and on the expertise of actors in the field (associations, elected officials and public actors). It relies, in particular, on the responses of 128 actors in direct contact with the most fragile categories of society: social workers in the departments and in communal social action centers, bank advisors, charities, and other organizations.They include social workers from the departments and municipal social action centers, bank advisors, charitable associations and managers of structures (shelters, hostels, integration workshops and work camps, food banks), people from early childhood structures or Parent and Educator Schools, Pôle emploi advisors, educators from open educational assistance programs, social assistants in companies, etc.
Three main types of findings emerged from the responses of these actors:
- health and social difficulties that have arisen or worsened during the crisis;
- the short-term difficulties and those that may be long-term;
- factors of social tension and the affects that emerge in society during or after this crisis.
People with difficulties in accessing rights during the crisis
Among the difficulties that have emerged or worsened during the crisis, the Poverty Monitoring Barometer focuses on those related to access to rights:"The overall observation of the actors is that these difficulties persist even after the crisis. The people most affected were those who had to open entitlements during the health crisis: foreign nationals without a residence permit or needing to renew it, self-employed people and seasonal workers no longer living on their professional income, retired people, especially widows, and elderly people losing their independence during the confinement.Social distancing measures have led to the closure of physical counters and an acceleration of digitization as a means of ofdigitization as a means of accessing public services. People who are uncomfortable using digital tools or understanding the administrative process have found it impossible to assert their rights. This impossibility persists because of the sometimes considerable delay in processing applications and in continuing the digitization process. Other people who until now were autonomous in their relations with the administrations are helpless when faced with the difficulties of contacting them and lose contact with them.Growing constraints in accessing rights, new needs identified and persistent non-use
Among the short-term difficulties that may become entrenched in the long term, the Barometer of qualitative monitoring of poverty points to the "growing difficulties encountered by the population in accessing rights, leading to fears of an increase in non-use"."The sometimes described as "degraded" functioning of administrations continues and the actors note that the procedures remain complex, the possibilities of physical reception very rare, the injunction to use online procedures on the rise. While they note growing needs, some of which would be met by reaching out to people who are sometimes very isolated and unaware of their rights, the actors note an increased distance between the administrations and the users.This distance is even worsened in rural areas due to the ever-increasing cost of gasoline: even when physical reception is possible, this cost leads some people to give up traveling.This lack of accessibility is at the root of non-use of services, the extent of which is, by definition, unknown to the actors. They note the lack of motivation of some people who give up trying to assert their rights and whose situations deteriorate.Difficulties in accessing rights and dialogue with administrations, factors of social tension
"The rise in aggressiveness comes up very regularly in the responses of the actors. Many note it without explaining it," observe the authors of the qualitative poverty monitoring barometer. "Some link it to the difficulties of accessing rights and dialogue with the authorities. This aggressiveness may stem from frustration caused by the impossibility of asserting one's rights and aggravated by the absence of interlocutors who would be able to hear the difficulties encountered and propose solutions. This frustration is then expressed by aggressive behavior towards associations or social workers, or even by violence in living areas and neighborhoods.Alongside this expectation of access to services, there is a demand for rights to which users believe they are entitled. In particular, it is the exchanges on social networks that reinforce their feeling that they should be able to benefit from support or assistance, whether these claimed rights are real or not. This mode of access to information also signals the distance between administrations and users and a certain mistrust of institutional representatives on the part of users.Références :
According to the Digital Barometer 2021, Among the people who have carried out administrative procedures online, 14% indicate that they have encountered difficulties in carrying them out alone. 9% indicate that they have persevered alone to pursue their requests, 4% have sought help from someone and 1% have not managed to complete the request via the Internet. Other results of the Barometer on this theme:
- 71% of French people have, in the last twelve months, completed an administrative procedure online (+ 5 points compared to 2019);
- 69% of French people have carried out administrative procedures online during the first two confinements related to the health crisis;
- 72% of French people say they are generally competent to carry out administrative procedures online (26% saying they are very competent and 46% fairly competent);
- the lack of mastery of online administrative procedures for the youngest is obvious: only 28% of 12-17 year olds think they are competent, whereas their mastery of digital tools is equivalent to that of the general population;
- Although it is spreading throughout the population, online solicitation of the administration continues to be more easily carried out by the most highly educated and advantaged groups: 79% of high-income earners, 82% of executives, 86% of higher education graduates; compared to 70% of low-income earners, 71% of blue-collar workers, 45% of non-graduates;
- Among the people who have carried out administrative procedures online, 14% indicate that they have encountered difficulties in carrying them out alone. 9% indicate that they have persevered alone to carry out their requests, 4% have asked for help from someone and 1% have not managed to complete the request via the Internet;
- Faced with the difficulties encountered by part of the population, particularly in managing administrative procedures online, the ideal place for 40% of the French combines proximity and diversity of services, that is to say, a place that brings together several public services and local services useful in everyday life (source: Digital Barometer 2019) ;
