Employment center, illustration.

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ROMAIN DOUCELIN / SIPA

  • With the approach of the holidays, the government would have adopted one more weapon to police the unemployed, according to a Facebook post.

  • According to the latter, Pôle emploi is now authorized to check the bank and telephone statements of its beneficiaries.

  • Pôle emploi confirms to

    20 Minutes

    having been granted a "right of communication" in order to fight against fraud in benefits, of which it specifies the scope.

Has Pôle Emploi been discreetly endowed with extensive skills enabling it to "check the telephone records of the unemployed" and "to obtain information from banks and companies" on its beneficiaries?

This is what affirms, on Facebook, a post denouncing the establishment of an "additional weapon to police the unemployed, the implementation of which is guided by the lamentable assumption that unemployment mainly counts fraudsters in power.

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It is based on a screenshot of an article entitled “Control of the unemployed, waiting day, legal aid… additions to the 2021 budget” and taken from the Dalloz law news site.

This lists various provisions added to the 2021 finance bill (PLF) before the final adoption a few days ago by parliamentarians of this text defining the state budget for the coming year, among which this “Right of communication” attributed to Pôle emploi.

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, the general management of Pôle emploi confirms the granting to its "fraud auditors" of this right of communication allowing "to obtain from a certain number of organizations or companies such as credit institutions or energy suppliers, without professional secrecy, in particular banking secrecy, the information necessary to check, in the event of doubt, the authenticity of the documents provided and the accuracy of the declarations made with a view to the allocation of allowances, services and aids of any kind ”provided by its services.

"The granting of the right of communication will significantly contribute to improving the efficiency of the prevention and fight against fraud", says the institution, recalling that "the Court of Auditors recommended in 2010, 2014, then 2020 to align the control prerogatives of sworn auditors of Pôle emploi responsible for the fight against fraud with those enjoyed by agents of social security organizations.

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If the Court of Auditors had recommended on several occasions, in recent years, the establishment of such a measure, it had never been adopted until then.

An amendment establishing this right of communication had indeed been slipped into the bill on social dialogue in May 2015, during François Hollande's five-year term ... before being withdrawn by the Minister of Labor at the time, François Rebsamen, in the face of public outcry.

A right guaranteed by "140 sworn officers responsible for preventing and combating fraud"

As Pôle emploi notes on its site, advancing recent figures, it is not so much benefit fraud that has increased but fraud detected.

In 2016 [ie the data put forward by Pôle Emploi], the institution thus detected 178 million euros of fraud on unemployment benefits, out of 33.9 billion paid, or 0.5%.

Enough to fuel criticism of the scale of the system deployed to fight against these abuses, as pointed out to our colleagues from

L'Humanité

 Denis Gravouil, in charge of unemployment insurance at the CGT: “Of course, we must not to let fraud pass.

But it is incredible to put in so many resources when it only concerns 18,000 cases per year out of the 2.4 million people receiving unemployment insurance benefits.

I would like us to put as many resources against tax evasion or that of social contributions ”.

Concretely, Pôle emploi will be able, thanks to this measure, "to ask banking establishments for the elements allowing to verify that a specific amount has been paid into a specific account on a given date or during a given period for the benefit of the holder (identity and address) "Or" verify an effective domiciliation on French territory [through] transfers, expenses and / or payments from abroad which would constitute evidence in cases of fraud at residence ", specifies its General Management.

"These are objectified data capable of proving, if applicable, an undeclared professional activity or, conversely, of ensuring the reality of a past professional activity", she adds, recalling that "this right of communication will be exclusively exercised by the 140 sworn agents of Pôle emploi responsible for preventing and combating fraud" who "will only use it in the event of suspected fraud.

”Without wishing to say more, however, on the possibility of checking the telephone records of beneficiaries. 

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