Government's+Policy+-+France

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__ Government's Policy: __

 * The Policy:**

France’s birthrate of 1.9 children per woman is the second highest in Europe but is still below the replacement rate of 2.1 and so the government has employed a number of policies to increase it. France’s female employment rate is among the highest in Europe at 81% and so one of the main aims is to encourage these working women to have babies. France’s pro-natalist population policies, mainly based on its family policy launched in the 1970s with some dating originally from 1939, include :

· 16 weeks paid maternity leave for the first child, increasing to up to 40 weeks for the third. There is also a total of 26 months parental leave (for both parents) available to all families.

· Subsidised childcare facilities with full-day childcare (crèches) available for younger children. Parents can pay on a sliding scale for pre-school programmes which are linked to family’s income with the wealthiest paying €500 per month. Childcare is free from age 3.

· Tax breaks are available for families with children, all increasing when the family has a third child. Large families also get €300 in monthly allowances and travel is subsidised greatly on public transport.

In 2005, the French government proposed to increase the grant with a ceiling of €1000 per month in response to a recent downtrend in fertility and longer spaces between pregnancies. This is almost the minimum wage of €1200 and is designed to attract women (mostly) who earn higher wages as the previous system was criticised for only attracting poorer women. As previously, this grant is given to parents to take a year off work to raise the third child, but not for first or second child. This plan has now been implemented and prior to Europe’s budget cutting frenzy, exceeded this amount.


 * Evaluation:**

This perhaps proves that, although successful, the former policy has not necessarily been sustainable and similar action may need to be taken in the future to ensure that fertility rates do not begin to fall once again. The idea of paying an educated, working person not to work for a year may also not make short term economic sense although in the long term there will certainly be a continually replaced workforce and this will prevent a high dependency ratio. Pro-natalist policies are likely to stir debate among French politicians and economists, particularly at a time when European governments are making spending cuts. The French people, however, seem pleased that "We plainly have a very good system compared with many countries" although Sylvie Clarke, a bank executive, also believes “at the end of the day, it's not more money - or rather less of a financial penalty - that makes you want a third child. It's the idea of having a third child.”

This video (below) summarises the key ideas. Some facts may be different as they come from different sources. media type="custom" key="7015741"

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