The difficulty in combating economic exclusion

Even though it affects 12 % of the population, poverty in France is largely unnoticed and is generally regarded as being a purely financial problem reduced to its sole monetary dimension. However, social exclusion and isolation which accompany poverty and are the unseen consequences of loss of employment, are for those concerned sources of great suffering and problems of returning to the world of work. Pôle emploi, the French national employment agency which is the result of the merger between the former Job Centre (ANPE) and the agency which collected and paid unemployment insurance contributions (Assedic), was created to focus more efficiently on the needs of the unemployed. However, the lack of a co-ordinated strategy between the various bodies concerned makes the government approach unclear, and often inefficient. Benoît Genuini, who prepared the reform of the RSA (the minimum level of income) with Martin Hirsch, was a mediator at Pôle emploi for eighteen months. He explains the impossible balance that this institution tries to maintain between the world of poverty and administrative bureaucracy.