Pricing as a tool of social policy

Overview of the schemes

In the Ile-de-France region, so-called "social" pricing takes several forms, some of which can be cumulative:

The terminology "social pricing" includes for certain titles discounts that are more of a commercial nature, insofar as eligibility for these discounts is not systematically conditioned by criteria of financial resources or status (children's rates, youth rates, etc.).

Specific titles

Reserved for certain audiences, they most often correspond to discounts on certain existing fares (half-fare on single fares, 55%, 75% or 100% discount on zonal subscriptions). Île-de-France Mobilités (formerly STIF) defines these fares (on its own initiative or at the instigation of partner local authorities), their fares and the eligible audiences. These price reductions compared to the pre-existing situation result in losses of revenue for carriers, which are compensated by Île-de-France Mobilités and/or the local authorities that have requested the implementation of the measure. To set up social pricing, Île-de-France Mobilités relies on partners (CAF, departmental councils, etc.), and on eligibility criteria defined elsewhere (administrative recognition of disability, receipt of social assistance, etc.).

Mobility vouchers

Mobility vouchers are a reserve of money that beneficiaries can use to buy full-fare Ile-de-France transport tickets. They are co-financed by Île-de-France Mobilités and the local authorities that wish to distribute them to the public of their choice (in compliance with the criteria defined by Île-de-France Mobilités).

Social assistance from local authorities

The social assistance provided by the Region, the Departments, the municipalities, etc., reduces the transport costs borne by users. They may, depending on the choice of the local authorities, concern all users or be reserved for certain segments of users only.

This aid can take the form of:

• third-party payment subsidies, in which case the amount of the subsidy is paid by the local authority to the transporters and reduces the purchase price for the beneficiary of the aid by the same amount;
• Reimbursements: in this case, the user advances the cost of his or her ticket and is reimbursed for part or all of it by the local authority a posteriori.

This case of intervention to help with the purchase of tickets does not strictly fall within the scope of the Ile-de-France social tariff, insofar as it does not result in the creation of a specific transport ticket at a reduced fare (even if it has the same consequences for the user in terms of reducing the cost of transport). This mode of intervention allows local authorities to help the mobility of the public of their choice, independently of the criteria defined by the STIF for its social vouchers, for example by distributing free or reduced fare tickets that they have previously purchased from the Ile-de-France "all audiences" fare range.

Depending on the securities and the origin of their implementation, the financing/compensation mechanisms are different (see details below). Indeed, the tariff reductions granted result in a loss of revenue for carriers compared to full-fare sales.

Compensation for loss of revenue

The introduction or extension of social fares generally results in a loss of revenue for carriers, insofar as people who previously travelled with full-fare fares can now buy fares at more advantageous fares.

Île-de-France Mobilités then compensates for these losses of revenue to carriers by increasing its contribution to the amount of the loss estimated a priori. When the social tariffs introduced are the result of a request from a local authority (Region, Department, etc.), Île-de-France Mobilités enters into a financing agreement with the local authority, which transfers all or part of the burden of compensation to the local authority.

Community intervention

Local authorities can intervene in two ways in social pricing:

• a local authority that is a member of the board of the Syndicat des Transports d'Île-de-France may propose the creation of a ticket at a social rate or a social reduction; the said measure must be approved by the council of the Syndicat des Transports d'Île-de-France;
• or by acting as a third-party payer on the "fare revenue" part

Different modalities of intervention by local authorities

The financial intervention of a local authority can take two forms:

• a financing agreement is signed between Île-de-France Mobilités and the local authority, the amount of the subsidy paid by the local authority generally being an indexed lump sum, originally determined to cover all or part of the loss of revenue estimated a priori;
• the local authority buys the tickets (Amethyste) or intervenes in a third-party payment system, i.e. it pays directly to the carrier, for each ticket sold, a subsidy covering all or part of the fare.

The third-party payment interventions of local authorities, in that they modify the price paid by users in relation to the regional tariff set by Île-de-France Mobilités, lead to departmental or local disparities that can affect the readability of regional pricing.

The target audiences of the social pricing defined by Île-de-France Mobilités

Young people

Young people are not subject to social pricing in the strict sense of the term, insofar as the specific rates they benefit from are not based on any income criterion (with the exception of stock market rates on Imagine R packages). Nevertheless, in addition to the commercial motivation to attract the future clientele of tomorrow in order to retain them, the implementation of reduced fares for young people is justified by several considerations of a social or equitable nature: young people are often captive, dependent on public transport (lack of driving licence and/or vehicle), they do not benefit from the employer's reimbursement of 50% on subscriptions when they are in school, the incomes of young workers are lower at the beginning of their careers, etc.

In addition to the free admission granted to children under 4 years old, several tickets at preferential rates exist for young people aged 4 to 26:

• Half-fare on tickets and tickets for children from 4 to under 10 years old;
• Imagine R School "all zones" passes (since the start of the 2015 school year), the price of which is equivalent to 43% of the price of an annual Navigo "all zones" pass; in addition to this preferential rate financed by the STIF and the Ile-de-France Region, additional aid granted by the Departmental Councils can be added, which reduces the purchase price of the ticket for families;
• Imagine R Student passes in all zones (since the start of the 2015 academic year), with a price slightly less than half the price of the Navigo Annual pass in all zones; this fare advantage is financed by Île-de-France Mobilités and the Ile-de-France Region, and the Val de Marne Department offers a 50% refund of the fare;
• Ticket Jeunes Week-end, equivalent to a half-price Mobilis, for young people under 26 years old.

Under certain conditions, young people in school can also take out special school season tickets: regular bus school cards, or Scol'R card if they use special school routes ("school bus"). These specific vouchers and services are financed in part by the School Transport grant that the State has paid annually to Île-de-France Mobilités since decentralisation.

For more details on the fares and their conditions of use, see the Youth Rates section.

People in social and financial difficulties

Mobility vouchers

The first measures to help people with mobility date back to 1998, with the creation of mobility vouchers, which allow STP partners to intervene in favour of the mobility of job seekers by distributing transport vouchers worth €4 or €8 that beneficiaries can exchange for full-fare transport tickets in the Paris region. 30% of these mobility vouchers are financed by the STP, and 70% by its funding partners (mainly the State, the Region, the Departments and the Assedic).

As the Solidarity Transport Pricing system has developed, the scope of the beneficiaries of the mobility vouchers has been reduced (transfer of beneficiaries of the CMU-C and recipients of the ASS, the RMI and the API to the Solidarity Transport Pricing system), so that the mobility vouchers are now mainly distributed by the Local Missions and the PAIO (Permanences d'Accueil, Information and Guidance Programme) only for young people aged 16 to 25 in the Ile-de-France region in the integration process to help them with their occasional trips (Île-de-France Mobilités-Région funding). The Department of Val-de-Marne also distributes them to young people under 25 years of age who are not assisted by the Region, to recipients of the return to work allowance (ARE) at a minimum rate, and to very disadvantaged people in the form of one-off assistance after evaluation by the social action service.

Transport Solidarity Pricing

The SRU law of 13 December 2000 requires urban transport authorities to implement discounts of at least 50% on transport tickets for people with resources below the ceiling giving entitlement to the CMU-C (universal – complementary medical coverage).

In application of this law, Île-de-France Mobilités created in 2001 the Solidarité Transport card accessible to beneficiaries of the CMU-C or State Medical Aid (AME). This card was used to justify the purchase of tickets and tickets at a reduced rate. From 2004 onwards, it also gave the right to a 50% discount on weekly and monthly zonal season tickets. The resulting loss of revenue was covered by Île-de-France Mobilités.

In 2006, the Region wanted to intervene more proactively with people in precarious situations, on the one hand by integrating new groups for the benefit of the Solidarité Transport (recipients of the ASS, the RMI and the API), and on the other hand by increasing the level of reduction: from 50% to 75% discount on subscriptions, and the introduction of the Forfait Gratuité Transport (Navigo Gratuité) for RMI recipients (which has since become RSA) in 2007. A financing agreement was then signed between Île-de-France Mobilités and the Region, which provides for the payment by the Region to Île-de-France Mobilités of an annual flat-rate subsidy covering in part the additional revenue losses generated by the extension of the scope of the Solidarity Transport Pricing beyond the legal injunction of a 50% reduction.

In 2016, the new Council of the Île-de-France Transport Union modified the conditions for the allocation of the Solidarity Transport Tariff by excluding beneficiaries of the AME.

Free access for young people in integration

In 2010, the Ile-de-France Region, which is responsible for the training and professional integration of young people with difficulties in accessing employment, wanted to strengthen its action in favour of their mobility, which often remains an obstacle to their integration, by meeting their regular travel needs. In 2011, free training trainees in the Ile-de-France region aged 16 to 25 were created free of charge for the following schemes of the regional public service for training and professional integration: Avenir Jeunes, Regional "Qualifying" Programme, or Second Chance School.

This free travel, which takes the form of a Navigo Gratuité pass that trainees can recharge each month for the duration of their internship, is financed by the Ile-de-France Region, via a financing agreement with Île-de-France Mobilités: each monthly free payment allocated to a young person in integration is thus subject to a subsidy from the Region to Île-de-France Mobilités.

Elderly and/or disabled people

Amethyst Package

Introduced in 2013, the Amethyst packages replace the previous magnetic titles of the Amethyst, Ruby and Emerald cards. They are intended for the elderly and/or disabled people with a means test, as well as for veterans.

This scheme is special in that it is entirely financed by the Departmental Councils. The latter buy Amethyst packages from Comutitres (the GIE of carriers including RATP, SNCF and Optile), at the rate set by Île-de-France Mobilités. They then distribute them to the beneficiaries of their choice in accordance with the framework criteria defined by Île-de-France Mobilités. The conditions for awarding the permit may vary from one department to another: eligibility criteria (age, level of resources, length of residence in the department), zoning of the package distributed, whether or not the beneficiary has set up a financial contribution to obtain the permit. These differences partly explain the variability in the penetration rate of the system depending on the department.

ONAC and Blindness tariff advantages

Holders of an ONAC card (issued by the National Office for Veterans and Victims of War) and holders of a disability card with a Blindness mention in the Paris region benefit, depending on the case, from discounts on tickets or free admission for themselves and/or their companion.
Set up separately by the SNCF and the RATP in the post-war years (first reduced fare on the metro ticket for war disabled in 1930), these various fare advantages were gradually harmonized between these two public operators in the early 1980s (for beneficiaries residing in the Ile-de-France region), before being more recently extended to bus networks operated by private operators (December 2012 for blind civilians, December 2014 for war invalids).

The loss of revenue generated by the harmonisation and extension of these fare advantages is covered by Île-de-France Mobilités.

PAM specific service

PAM is a specialised on-demand transport service for people with disabilities, reserved primarily for people with a disability rate of more than 80%. It is managed at the level of the Departments by delegation of competence from Île-de-France Mobilités, but the fare remains set by Île-de-France Mobilités.

The difference between the cost of the journeys, as defined in the contracts signed between the Departments and their operator, and the fare paid by the user (which covers an average of 14% of the cost of the journey), is covered in a tripartite manner between the Department, the Region and Île-de-France Mobilités, within the limit of a previously defined ceiling. The Department has the possibility of intervening in a more proactive manner, by paying part of the tariff at the expense of the user.

Paratransit

Île-de-France Mobilités covers the school transport costs of pupils, apprentices and disabled students living in the Ile-de-France region who are unable to use public transport, either because of its inadequacy or because of the severity of their disability.

This coverage, which is subject to the favourable opinion of the Departmental House for Disabled Persons (MDPH) to which the pupil, apprentice or student is domiciled, concerns a daily round trip during the school term (except in special cases).

It can take two different forms:

• implementation of the transport service by Île-de-France Mobilités (taxis, ambulance, VSL, transport company), depending on the home, the school and the specific needs of the students
• reimbursement of transport carried out by the personal vehicle, on the basis of a kilometre rate decided by Île-de-France Mobilités, and on presentation of a certificate of attendance from the school

The State contributes largely to the financing of paratransit through the School Transport grant that it has paid annually to Île-de-France Mobilités since decentralization.

Volume of beneficiaries and penetration rate of the various social tariffs

Volume of beneficiaries

Penetration rate

Calculating the penetration rate of a scheme, by comparing the volume of beneficial owners to the volume of potential beneficiaries, requires the ability to count both the numerator and the denominator in detail. This precise knowledge is not always possible in view of the multiplicity of eligibility criteria that may overlap (age, status, income, etc.) and the sensitive nature of certain social data. Therefore, the data presented below are only estimates.

These penetration rates may seem quite low to some, especially on tickets offering free transport. However, they are generally satisfactory in view of the penetration rates observed for other social measures that do not require financial compensation (minimum social benefits, CMU-C, social energy tariffs).

Several factors can explain why people eligible for discounts or free transport do not use these schemes:

• non-use of public transport (low mobility or use of an alternative mode of transport)
• competition between certain transport tickets (choice between T+ half-fare tickets, bus school card and Imagine R pass for some pupils for example)
• Lack of awareness of the tariff range and their rights by the target audiences
• real or supposed complexity of the procedures,
• fear of the stigma of traveling with a social title, etc.