Allowances, Vitale cards, withdrawals abroad … The Minister Delegate for Public Accounts Gabriel Attal unveiled Monday a vast plan to fight against social fraud which should make it possible to save money and double the adjustments by 2027.
These announcements come three weeks after a first plan centered on the fight against tax evasion.
Social fraud, like tax evasion, is a form of hidden tax on working French people, the minister said in an interview with Parisian.
Social benefits fraud alone is value between 6 and 8 billion euros per year according to the Court of Auditors. The ministry is giving itself 10 years to complete the project, with a first step, namely to have twice as many results in 2027 as in 2022. Adjustments have already increased by 35% over the past 5 years. For this, he promises the creation of 1,000 additional jobs during this five-year period and an investment of one billion euros in information systems.
Package of measures more or less short chances
The minister detailed a whole series of more or less short-lived measures. In particular, he wants to strengthen the residency requirements In France to receive social allowances. It will now be necessary to pass 9 months of the year in the country, against 6 currently planned, to benefit from family allowances or the minimum old age, indicates the minister. The same applies to the APLs which only require 8 months of presence for the time being.
Gabriel Attal intends to increase the means of Urssaf to limit fraud to employers’ contributions.
Another announcement, potentially with concrete repercussions for the French, is that the government is considering a merger between the Vitale card and the identity card to combat healthcare fraud. We can imagine a model where from a certain date, when you redo your identity card it automatically becomes your vital card, said the minister during an exchange with journalists, adding that a prefiguration mission would be launched by the summer and could reach conclusions by the end of the year. Incidentally, the idea of a biometric Vitale card seems to have been abandoned, particularly given its cost.
Bercy also wants to target retirees living outside European borders to better identify those who have died but continue to receive benefits. The Minister recalled that more than one million pensions were paid abroad, half of them outside Europe, and 300,000 in Algeria.
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