How the triumph of France Services repairs the digital divide

It is 11 am, the waiting music for the health insurance standard has invaded Elisabeth’s cuisine for an hour. In the background, a coffee maker buzzes to prepare its third coffee from the morning.

The drink accompanies the young retiree in the administrative marathon that she started at the start of the week. Over the next day, it is impossible to connect to your Ameli account. And without access to this online space, no way to recover the documents it must send to its mutual insurance company to obtain the reimbursement of its dental care. “I am completely blocked with my password. The security has always been long, but it is worse in worse to have someone on the phone, ”despairs the old cleaning lady.

Long minutes later, a voice finally arises from the handset: “Madam, I studied your request, I can’t do anything for you by phone. »Elisabeth’s face sags. “Go on the internet, you will find all the necessary information,” continues the advisor. The anxiety then seizes the sixties. This last sentence, she heard it too much and no longer supports it. Like 16 million French people who encounter difficulties in using digital devices, do not have or do not have an internet connection, Élisabeth is in a situation of illectronism. A scourge at the origin of a digital and social fracture in our country.

France Services agents support users

At a time when the paper disappears, consulting its emails and entering online information has become compulsory to exchange with the administration or assert its rights. Nearby or children at ease with a nearby computer, many people, like Elisabeth, find themselves isolated. “The dematerialization of all uses inhibits people in difficulty with digital, it constantly brings them back to their helplessness in the face of screens. It is violent to feel helpless in his autonomy at 60, ”observes Karine Millet, municipal agent at the town hall of Boulleret (Cher).

It was with her and her colleague Christina de Sousa that Elisabeth found help, the discussions between neighbors having led her to the house of Maison France Services. Created in 2019, these structures, which combine physical reception and digital support for citizens, make it possible to reach in one place 12 administrations well known to the French: public finances, family allowances, health insurance, URSSAF, France work, point-justice, etc. France Services agents support users with or without an appointment.

Unexpected for Elisabeth. “The girls were adorable, they called maladie, they answered immediately and the problem was quickly resolved. Christina de Sousa explains that she has a referent in each partner administration, which she can join via a direct line and a secure platform. This privileged access changes the situation and the structure is the victim of its success.

“We are sold out, jokes the young woman. Our presence reassures people, they often fear making stupidity, to be the victim of a scam. Even if sometimes we don’t do much, they thank us as if we had moved mountains. Designed to respond to the withdrawal of public services in certain territories and the feeling of relegation violently expressed during the crisis of yellow vests, the France Services houses hold their bet.

These 2,840 reception areas are almost all less than thirty minutes of transport for each Frenchman. A recent report from the Court of Auditors underlines their positive influence on “the individual feeling of abandonment” and believes that they “undoubtedly participate in the reduction of territorial fractures”. Above all, users accordinate them, their satisfaction exceeds 90 %. A triumph, while 51 % of French people say they are dissatisfied with public services in the country (1).

A “feeling of abandonment” that the “all-numeric” generates

It is not Sylvette Bernard who will say the opposite. This retiree crossed at the counter in Boulleret, goes here two to three times a week. “Of course, I come for papers or an electronic signature, but it is also a pretext to discuss, to get news from Christina and Karine. It puts life in the village. Sylvette could ask her grandchildren to help but the embarrassment of disturbing them sometimes takes over. “Yes, yes, granny, I’m going to help you …”, let them tell me. My eye, yes! When they come to the house, it is not to make papers but to eat the good dishes of their grandmother, that’s all, ”she laughs with a strong Berrichon accent.

If the profiles in search of chat like that of Sylvette are numerous, others prove to be much more deprived in the face of digital. Absence of an email address, refusal of the smartphone, administrative phobia … The rejection of the virtual materializes in material damage in their daily life. In 2021, a third of French people declared that they have given up carrying out an online administrative approach because of its complexity (2.) “The major issue in the fight against illecronism is that of access to law”, underlines Jean-Louis Billaut, the mayor of Boulleret. If he is delighted with the success of his France France Services house with his 1,400 citizens, the elected representative deplores the “feeling of abandonment” that the “all-numeric” generates in the population.

“Digitization is done for all directions, even buying your fishing permit is done exclusively on the internet. It is an obstacle to the leisure for some local grandpa. »A hundred kilometers away, in the Nivernais village of Dornes, another councilor lives an idyll with her house France Services. Jean-Luc Gauthier claims to have “made feet and hands” so that she settles in the post office of her town.

Here, the village star is Brigitte Bouchoux. Large black frame glasses that contrast with short blond hair, the teeth of happiness which immediately arouse sympathy, the old postal re -entered into a France Services agent knows everyone. “Hi Pascal, by the way, I received confirmation for your retirement file”; “Hello Marie, install yourself, you can print on this computer”; “Arlette? Another password problem? 13 % of French people consider that digital complicates their everyday life. Brigitte simplifies them.

Illectronism is not inevitable

For Irene, out of the question to take the risk that her connection lets go in the midst of her land declaration. Request for a building permit, declaration of birth of the calves, aid of aid of the common agricultural policy … The farmer is crumbling in administrative procedures, more and more dematerialized. And an error in a form can weaken the cash flow of its exploitation. “It’s our work, it’s serious!” With Jean-François, I have someone in front of me, I know that the file has been processed and that it will keep me posted. »»

Fruit of successful word of mouth, the success of France Services houses testifies above all to the lack of online autonomy of millions of French people. The next step will be to make them independent in front of their screen. A challenge harvested the 4,000 digital advisers trained by the State since 2021, during the training sessions which they animate several times a week. “The most complicated is to leave room for everyone, the workshop having been taken over,” observes Charlène Léger, in office at the town hall of Boulleret.

In total, the young woman accompanies around thirty people, mostly seniors. If her goal is obviously not that the participants “become computer scientists”, she is delighted with the immense progress of some. Like this 85-year-old lady who, upon her arrival, took off the mouse of the table and waved him in the air to make her move on the screen, and who is now able to reserve an appointment with the doctor in Doctolib or respond to her emails. A strong signal for the rest of the group: Illectronism is not inevitable.

(1) IFOP survey, January 2024.

(2) INSEE study, May 2022.

“An excessive dematerialization of our society”

According to Adélaïde Zulfikarpasic, Director General of the BVA XSIGHT survey institute, “78 % of French people believe that human contacts have been reduced over the past twenty years. This observation increased with age (81 % among 65 and over) but, however, even the youngest deplored it in their vast majority (68 % of 18-24 year olds). It is the fruit of the excessive dematerialization of our society, but also of the persistent ambivalence of the French against digital. They oscillate between the desire for a “customer -oriented company”, where the immediacy permitted by the screens governs our access to public services, shops and leisure; And nostalgia for a “binder society”, which would rehabilitate human relations on a daily basis. »»

White areas still remain

And these difficulties do not affect the seniors, she underlines. Young people are also concerned, since almost 30 % of 15-29 year olds declare themselves incompetent to carry out their administrative procedures online. If many know how to use Tiktok, Instagram and play video games perfectly, that does not premine them to be embarrassed when transferring an email, creating a CV or filling their tax return to the web.

“Even if these generations have grown up in a digital society, the real subject is uses. Some are “capacity”, they give power and skills, others fall under recreational, even abruption practices, “notes Orianne Ledroit, general delegate of Edtech France and advisor responsible for digital inclusion for the government from 2019 to 2021.

Located behind her computer, her handmade mouse, Brigitte lists the crucial steps for a young living in the countryside: registration for the driving license, registration card request, job search … At the same time, Irene, Charolais cows breeder, passes the door. A pocket filled with tax leaves overflows with his handbag. She has an appointment with Jean-François Portal, an agent of the tax administration who provides a permanence in Dornes every Wednesday morning. A meeting that Irène had set for a long time in her agenda and which she considers as a relief. Indeed, in this 60 -year -old woman, the internet connection to the farm is “bad, even nonexistent”. An almost white area, as there are some in the territory.