Social assistance: “Vaud is particularly ineffective” according to the CVCI

About 250 million francs a year: this is the sum that the canton of Vaud could save in social assistance if it was as efficient as the cadors in the matter. This figure comes out of an 88 -page study published Tuesday. Mandated by the Vaudoise Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CVCI), it was produced by the Economic Consulting Cabinet Swiss Economics.

The subject: a cantonal comparison of the main sources of spending, namely training and social security. And, indeed, if the canton of Vaud “displays a good performance in terms of efficiency of educational expenses”, he “shows himself particularly ineffective in comparison to other cantons” in terms of social assistance, comments the CVCI.

Concretely, Vaud points to the penultimate position in the classification by Canton – established among other things on the basis of indicators comparing the costs incurred and the services provided – on the question. It turns out that it “could save about 22% of its spending on social assistance in the broad sense if it was as efficient as the canton presenting the best results”, namely Bern. Basically, the canton of Vaud needs more money to achieve the same results as in many other cantons. It is by postponing this result on the 2022 costs that the report comes to the figure of 250 million francs in potential economy.

Where the rub is even more, according to the study is that Vaudois taxes increase by around 2.5% per year since 2004, against 1.5% in Bern and Zurich, “cantons that have similarities in terms of demography, degree of urbanization, as well as organization”. Which makes the CVCI say that “the canton of Vaud does not suffer from returns of money, but from a real problem of spending related to Social Security”. And to conclude: “Vaud exploits its tax potential as much as possible at the expense of part of the taxpayers.”