French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal revealed a plan to reduce unemployment benefits in his country, in an attempt to advance economic reforms by French President Emmanuel Macron and return citizens to the workforce.
Attal said in an interview in Sunday’s issue of La Tribune newspaper that the reform will reduce the maximum period of social welfare to 15 months from 18 months and will lengthen the period of work required to qualify for benefits, according to Bloomberg News Agency on Sunday.
The government wants the changes to take effect on December 1. Attal said the amendments were not intended to save costs, but to push more French people into jobs, which would in turn fund the benefits system.
An Atal advisor told reporters on Sunday that the effects are expected to gradually reduce spending over the next few years, reaching 3.6 billion euros annually in savings, resulting in an additional 90,000 people in the workforce.
These measures come after France received a warning about its high debt burden from the International Monetary Fund, which called for more efforts to control the budget deficit.
#Prime #Minister #France #reveals #plan #reduce #unemployment #benefits