Introducing the SENEF and Progisap Press Review. This monthly press review is a digest of all the latest news from the care services sector.
Fedesap studies: Who are the real entrepreneurs in the homecare sector?
Fédésap carried out a survey of home services managers to gain a better understanding of their concerns. The results of the survey tend to dispel cliches about the sector:
- The majority of managers are women (56%) and work more than 49 hours a week for a salary that is often less than €2,000 net per month.
- Their main motivation is to meet a growing social need and create jobs that cannot be relocated.
- Companies in the sector are resilient, with 80% surviving after 5 years.
- They are established throughout the country, including in rural areas (72%).
- They are often human-scale structures, growing steadily, employing between 10 and 50 people and generating sales of between €250,000 and €1 million.
Managers in the sector are facing major challenges:
- Supporting families in balancing their professional and private lives.
- Supporting an ageing population.
- Strengthening support for people with disabilities.
The text underlines the importance of care services for regional cohesion and for living well together.
“Building a society where everyone can grow old with dignity and in the way they want” Gabriel Attal
FESP statement: Supporting our fellow citizens at all ages and at every stage of life is a major challenge, as the Prime Minister has pointed out. This means taking into account all the players who work every day to make this a reality. Care services companies are at the heart of this approach, providing support to the French, particularly the most vulnerable, throughout the country. They are ready to work constructively with the Government to meet this challenge, because the situation is urgent.
1 January 2024: ASPA (Solidarity allowance for the elderly) increased by 5.3%
The ASPA, formerly known as the minimum old-age allowance, is paid to retired people on low incomes. This allowance was increased by 5.3% on 1 January 2024. Service-Public.fr provides an update on the new ceilings in force and the conditions for obtaining this assistance.
Home autonomy services – Rate of price change 2024
The unions have called for an increase in the fees charged by home care services ( SAD). Growing inflation and a crisis in the attractiveness of the homecare professions are justified by the absence of new measures in the PLFSS 2024 and by the record level of tension in the sector, marked by a multiplication of structures in difficulty.
In particular, the federations are calling for a price cap to be set for 2024, for tariffs to be revised during the year in the event of higher-than-expected changes in costs, and for the costs associated with new regulatory obligations to be taken into account.
To counter these problems, they are asking for a 16.32% increase in prices for 2024, which is essential to take into account the additional costs that affected services in 2023. The aim of this approach is to safeguard the viability of the services, support the employees and stay the course towards a viable housing model.
Finally, services will be able to increase current contract rates by a maximum of 5.95%. Far from enough for the sector.
After the years of crisis, SYNERPA takes stock of the reconstruction and transformation of the elderly sector
Finally, the private sector for the elderly is in difficulty:
- Inflation and funding: Operating costs are rising faster than public funding, which is jeopardising the long-term viability of facilities.
- HR needs and attractiveness: The sector needs to recruit 450,000 people by 2030, but is facing a loss of attractiveness.
- Home and RSS: The reform of autonomy services is complex, and the base rate for home care is inadequate.
- Senior residences: These need to be better integrated into the residential pathway.
Despite these difficulties, private EHPADs play an essential role
- Complementarity: They complement the public and voluntary sectors and contribute to regional development.
- Job creation: They created 118,000 local jobs in 2019.
- Innovation and investment: They finance a large proportion of investment in the sector and develop new services.
SYNERPA is calling for support from the public authorities
- Funding: Reforming the funding model for EHPADs to ensure their sustainability.
- Human resources: Increase salaries and therefore finance the implementation of rider 33.
- Administrative simplification: Reform autonomy services to make them more applicable in the field.
- Visibility: Increase the visibility of serviced senior residences in the residential pathway.
SYNERPA wants to put the issue of old age back at the heart of the public debate, so that we can work together with all the stakeholders to develop “ageing well”.
In 2024, the Autonomy branch is consolidating to strengthen the quality of its service
The Autonomy branch is consolidating its network to provide better information, guidance, support and assistance in preventing the loss of autonomy. Funding has been consolidated to provide better day-to-day support for people who are elderly or living with a disability, and to support their freedom of choice.
The Autonomy branch of Kezako: The Autonomy branch of the Social Security system, managed by the CNSA, relies on a network of partners throughout France. Its aim is to guarantee the same level of service to all its users: people who are elderly or living with a disability, and their carers, wherever they live.
Agents lose a historic battle
Study of a ruling by the Versailles Administrative Court of Appeal dated 15 December 2023, which has significant repercussions for agent structures.
This ruling stipulates that these structures cannot benefit from the reduced rate of VAT granted to service providers, but must apply the standard rate of 20%. Frank Nataf, President of Fedesap, explains the distinction between agent and service provider structures, highlighting the additional responsibilities assumed by the latter.
Worth noting: The importance of court rulings in clarifying tax laws and setting legal precedents.
Reminder:
- The “mandataire” mode is…
Agency work is the provision of HR, legal and administrative advice to individual employers on a contract-by-contract basis. It is not a direct provision of care services, but rather an activity designed to support the proper management of an employee by a direct employer. That’s why it’s right that the VAT rate should be 20%, like all other indirect care services activities.
- In a service-provider mode, the operator employs an employee and meets all the obligations that go with it: payment for travel time, occupational medicine, contractual time (an employee with a full-time contract will be paid every month regardless of the time spent at home), legal liability in the event of industrial action.
