Financial Support for Young Adults Through Tax and Social Transfers – Defamilialisation Scenarios

Abstract

[eng] This paper assesses the support provided by the tax and social security system to young adults aged 18-24, distinguishing between the direct benefits they receive and the transfers channelled through their parents, whether in the form of increases in social security benefits or tax savings. Using the Myriade microsimulation model, we estimate that nearly 50% of the support provided to young adults aged 18-24 is channelled through their parents. Illustrating the familialist model that underlies support to young adults in France, indirect transfers tend to be higher in the upper deciles than in the middle deciles, raising questions of fairness. To assess their redistributive properties, the paper examines the effect of redeploying indirect support in the form of an individualised allowance paid directly to young adults. In the two scenarios envisaged, redeployment is found to reduce the average poverty risk and the differences in living standards among young adults, but to penalise some young adults from low-income families still in education.