After tax fraud, the executive is tackling social fraud. Allowances, Vitale cards, retirees abroad... Gabriel Attal unveiled Monday a vast plan of fight that should make savings and double the recoveries by 2027.

"Social fraud, like tax fraud, is a form of hidden tax on French people who work," said the minister delegate for public accounts in an interview with Le Parisien. Social benefit fraud alone is estimated at between 6 and 8 billion euros per year according to the Court of Auditors.

Ten years to succeed in this project

The minister is giving himself 10 years to lead the project, with a first step, namely to have in 2027 "twice as many results as in 2022". Adjustments have already increased by 35% over the past five years. To this end, it promises the creation of a thousand additional jobs during this five-year period and an investment of one billion euros in information systems.

The minister details a whole series of measures in the more or less short term. One of them, the merger of the Carte Vitale with the identity card, has apparently not been the subject of consultation within the government. An official of the Ministry of the Interior reacted immediately and warned against such a measure "technically impossible and for which the CNIL is deeply opposed". According to him, "the solution remains the biometric Carte Vitale that has been voted and that must be put in place". But the minister seems to have abandoned this idea given its cost. On the merger of Carte Vitale and identity card, a prefiguration mission will be launched by the summer with conclusions expected by the end of the year.

The means of the Urssaf will increase

Gabriel Attal also wants to "strengthen" the conditions of residence in France "to benefit from social benefits". It will now be necessary to spend nine months of the year in the country, against six currently planned, to benefit from family allowances or the minimum old-age pension. The same applies to APLs, which require only eight months of presence at the moment. The Minister also intends to increase the means of the Urssaf to limit fraud in employers' contributions.

Bercy also wants to target retirees living outside European borders to better identify those who have died but continue to receive benefits. Gabriel Attal also recalls that more than a million pensions are paid abroad, half of them outside Europe, and 300,000 in Algeria.

  • Society
  • Gabriel Attal
  • Tax evasion
  • Social fraud
  • Social benefits
  • Social benefits