The 2021 Social Security accounts were released by the Minister of Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt, before the Senate. Compared to what had been decided, the balance improved by about 9 billion euros, and by 14 billion euros compared to 2020. The resurgence in growth boosted revenues significantly.
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| Oliver Dussopt |
Growth is the only thing that can repair public finances. 'Nuff said. By adopting the final Social Security accounts for 2021, the government experienced this again. Tuesday afternoon, the Senate Social Affairs Committee heard from the Minister of Public Accounts, Olivier Dussopt. He stated that the 2021 deficit, which had been estimated to be 33.5 billion euros, had instead been resolved at 24.6 billion euros.
There is still a lot of room for improvement, but it's significant: 8.9 billion more than anticipated and 14.1 billion less than 2020. Remember that the general plan and old age solidarity fund had a record deficit of 38.7 billion euros the year of the Covid shock. Olivier Dussopt emphasised that social security had completely performed its job as a crises "shock absorber."
However, expenditures increased by 5.6 percent in 2021, which cannot be accounted for by a decrease in expenditures. The 239.5 billion euro health insurance budget was 700 million euros above budget.
There was an increase in revenue of 9.7 percent. In the previous year, they were propelled by a robust economic rebound. In the end, the GDP increased by 7%. Payroll in the private sector increased by 8.9% instead of the expected 7.2%, bringing in an extra $3.9 billion for social security funds.
Tax collections rose by 1.5 billion dollars, as did self-employment tax receipts by 1 billion dollars.
According to Olivier Dussopt, "macroeconomic uncertainty" and the "amount of Covid spending" might have a "positive influence" on the balance in 2022.
As proposed by the High Council for Financing Social Protection, the Minister repeated that he did not want to shift certain Social Debt Amortization Fund money toward balancing Social Security's current finances.. The "killing growth and increasing deficits" argument was another one that he had against raising the membership fee.
"Structural adjustments" are needed to "continue to boost the potential for development" in the medium term, according to him, citing the pension reform as an example of such reforms. In addition, "new instruments for the control of social finances" and "renovation of the regulation of health insurance spending" are included, as permitted by the organic legislation vote on February 9.