Already completely weighed down in 2020 by spending related to the Coronavirus pandemic, the Social Security deficit remains at an abysmal level for 2021. According to a report from the Social Security Accounts Commission consulted on Wednesday it will amount to 38.4 billion euros in 2021 against 38.7 billion last year.
The budget voted in December, however, expected a slight recovery, to 35.8 billion. And the trend augured for a better result: with a recession of 8% of GDP in 2020, instead of the dreaded 11%, revenue collected in 2021 will jump by 5.6 billion. But at the same time, spending will increase by 8.2 billion, to pay for tests, vaccines and other additional costs (hospitals, work stoppages) linked to the third epidemic wave at the beginning of the year.
Most of the deficit on the sickness branch
Unsurprisingly, most of the deficit will rest on the sickness branch, which should end the year with a new record loss of 31 billion euros. The retirement branch will also show a deteriorating balance (-4.4 billion), but in reality its deficit will be reduced by half if we exclude the exceptional payment of five billion received last year under an old “cash payment”. »Belonging to the electricity and gas regime.
Added to this is the usual loss (-2.6 billion) of the old age solidarity fund (FSV). The improvement will be more obvious for the family (+0.5 billion) and work-related accidents (+0.3 billion) branches, which will regain their pre-Covid surpluses. On the other hand, the new autonomy branch will end its first financial year with a higher than expected deficit of 1.2 billion euros.