Like the tide, it keeps coming back. The idea of an out-of-pocket payment for employees who use their personal training account (CPF) has resurfaced once again in the debates. The 2023 episode could nevertheless be the right one this time. Indeed, the majority deputies, looking for a billion euros in savings, as requested by the executive, have set their sights on this option and… the government does not seem to be doing so for once. , not opposed.
This system allows each French employee to be credited with several hundred euros each year to an account that they can freely use to access training. Despite many positive aspects, the system is regularly singled out for the total freedom that employees enjoy regarding the choice of training followed. Some having no connection with the job performed. A lightness that goes badly, while the cost to public finances continues to increase, exceeding two billion euros each year. “We are shouting loudly because we are asking for frankness […], but that seems responsible and fair to me,” explains Bruno Le Maire in Les Échos.
If this is the case, however, this would go back to the promises made by Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Labor, a month earlier. He ruled out the option of this “moderation ticket” for employees in 2024. A measure not necessary at that time due to the savings already anticipated. “In 2022, the CPF represents 2.4 billion euros of public money. We have taken a number of steps; hunting slingers (…) we cleaned up, removing training which was not qualifying, which was not serious. Consequently, we believe that the expenditure will increase to 2 billion euros in 2023,” he then pointed out.
However, the idea was not excluded in the longer term; “we continue to work on it”. The need for savings to shield a 2024 budget with a deficit maintained at 4.4% of GDP therefore seems to have accelerated the pace.
The final version of the project remains to be seen. In fact, at present no amount of the co-payment has yet been filtered. In addition, it is likely that not all training is equally affected. “There is a commitment to establish this remaining liability at the beginning of 2024, which will only concern people employed for training for which their employer is not favorable,” detailed Jean-René Cazeneuve, Renaissance deputy and general budget rapporteur. , in the Echoes.
For once, if this reform sees the light of day, parliamentarians would follow the recommendations of the Court of Auditors. In a report published this summer, the institution recommended the establishment of a small participation “for example 5% or 10%”, write the financial magistrates. The goal is to ensure that these training courses are “oriented towards skills development and employability” without “dissuading CPF holders from using it, particularly people with low incomes”.