There are documents that resonate like a death knell for a society losing its bearings and its charity. For three decades, Secours Catholique has been compiling a moral and statistical assessment of social suffering in our country. In this year 2025, marking thirty years of observation, the report entitled "The State of Poverty in France" paints a somber picture, where material distress intensifies and the face of the indigent changes, revealing the gaping flaws in our public structures. Far from the promises of perpetual progress, we are witnessing a tragic return of deep precarity.
The Dramatic Intensification of Poverty
The first observation that strikes the mind is the vertiginous fall in the standard of living of households assisted by the association. In 2024, the median standard of living of these unfortunate individuals stands at 565 euros. When inflation is taken into account, this amount marks a significant decrease over ten years. Even worse, extreme poverty is gaining ground with unprecedented violence: today, "74% of households encountered live below the extreme poverty threshold", a figure that has jumped by 11 points since 2017.
This worsening is the fruit of a double penalty: stagnant incomes for the most modest and the massive arrival of people with no resources whatsoever. Indeed, "25.7% of households assisted live with no resources at all", compared to only 10.1% thirty years ago. This reality now affects a growing share of French households, victims of unemployment insurance and RSA reforms, who find themselves destitute, sometimes homeless, in a situation of wandering unworthy of our history. In a striking contrast that questions distributive justice, the text notes that between 2003 and 2022, "the average income of the top 0.1% wealthiest in France increased by 119%".
Family and Childhood on the Front Line
Tradition teaches us that the family is the foundation of society; yet, it is the family that bears the full brunt of this economic storm. The report highlights that women and children are the first victims of this disintegration. Women now represent 56.5% of the adults encountered. The figure of the single mother, bearing alone the burden of education and subsistence, is omnipresent: in 2024, three out of four single mothers live in extreme poverty.
The plight of children is even more alarming. They represent 39% of the people supported. It is painful to read that "97% of the children supported by the association live in a poor household". More than one child in five lives in a home with no resources, a proportion that has multiplied tenfold in thirty years. This infant misery is an indelible stain on our collective conscience.
The Mirage of Work and the Abandonment of the Elderly
The modern idea that employment is the sole remedy for poverty is contradicted by the facts. Certainly, work protects, but it is no longer enough. The phenomenon of the working poor is taking root: nearly 18% of the people encountered are employed, but their standard of living remains derisory, around 855 euros. The precarity of contracts, involuntary part-time work—often the lot of women—and the succession of temporary assignments no longer allow for a dignified life. Even a permanent contract (CDI) is no longer an absolute guarantee against need, as the standard of living of holders of such contracts has fallen since 2017.
Simultaneously, another category of the population, once preserved, sees its situation deteriorating: our elders. The report signals the "gradual return of poverty among seniors". The share of people over 60 encountered has almost tripled since 1999. Isolated, often widowed, these elderly people see their living conditions become more fragile, particularly in rural areas where poverty is gaining ground, now affecting more than one in six households encountered.
Faced with these trials, the Secours Catholique report highlights two poisons that threaten our society: indifference and powerlessness. It forcefully reminds us that "one does not choose to live in deep poverty". The prejudices that burden the poor, treating them as lazy or profiteers, are an insult to their dignity. As the document underscores by citing discussion groups, people feel that "society, the State are pushing us down, they judge us negatively".
It is urgent to look this reality in the face. Deep precarity is not inevitable; it is the consequence of political choices and a lack of social charity. Social benefits, the ultimate ramparts, too often miss their target, with a non-take-up rate for the RSA reaching peaks (38%). May reading this provoke a moral awakening so that poverty is no longer the inescapable destiny of millions of our brothers and sisters.