What happens without a Social Security budget?

What would happen if the Social Security budget for 2025 were not approved? On Monday, December 2, Prime Minister Michel Barnier forced the bill through the Assemblée Nationale without a vote, by activating Article 49.3 of the Constitution. The decision prompted two motions of no confidence to be tabled by the left-wing alliance Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) and the far-right Rassemblement National (RN). If the government falls, the social security budget (PLFSS) would be dead and gone.

Former prime minister Elisabeth Borne spoke of such a possibility: “If the Social Security budget is censured, it means that, on January 1, [2025]your carte Vitale card [that covers public health insurance] will no longer work” and “pensions will no longer be paid,” she said, speaking on November 24 on French television. If France were to find itself without a Social Security budget bill at the beginning of next year, the welfare state “would not come to an immediate standstill,” Dominique Libault, president of the High Council for the Financing of Social Protection, said. “Social benefits would be paid and contributions would continue to be collected.”

However, there is one point that is concerning to connoisseurs of France’s solidarity system: The borrowing capacity of the Central Agency for Social Security Bodies (Acoss). “Each year, this operator is authorized by the “Sécu” [the Social Security system] budget to raise funds on the financial markets, up to a ceiling that has been raised from €45 billion to €65 billion in 2025, to meet the cash flow requirements of the schemes,” said Elisabeth Doineau, a centrist senator and general rapporteur of the Social Affairs Commission. According to her, “Acoss must be granted this authorization, otherwise, it will not be possible to pay out Social Security benefits very quickly.”

The same problem arises for the pension fund for hospital workers and local civil servants, according to Doineau: “It too benefits from a borrowing authorization, of €13 billion for 2025, thanks to the Social Security budget bill. If it is deprived of this, it may no longer be able to allocate pensions.”

Public hospital financing concerned

To avoid such situations, in which beneficiaries would not receive what they are owed, “it would be essential to adopt an exceptional text very quickly, by law or decree, in the name of the country being able to keep going,” Libault said, pointing out that this situation is not currently considered in France’s body of legislation.