Three weeks after the announcement of a first plan to fight tax fraud, and at a time when French accounts are scrutinized by rating agencies, the government wants to draw from all pockets of fraud.

"Our desire is to look at where the situations of fraud are and respond to them, without stigmatization, without instrumentalization," said Monday evening the Minister of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal, presenting the plan to journalists.

Among the most salient measures, the government is considering a merger between the Carte Vitale and the identity card in order to fight against loans or "rentals" of Carte Vitale that allow some to benefit from free care. A prefiguration mission will be launched by the summer, its conclusions being expected "by the end of the year," Bercy said Tuesday.

"That's where we're going to go. Now, the question is how and when, "cautiously advanced Gabriel Attal Tuesday on BFMTV, noting the "difficulties" encountered by the French to quickly obtain an identity card. The Minister pointed out that a merger of these cards is already effective in Belgium, Portugal and Sweden.

Gabriel Attal during a visit to the judicial investigation service of the Ministry of Finance (SEJF), in Ivry-sur-Seine in the Val-de-Marne on May 9, 2023 © bERTRAND GUAY / AFP/Archives

The proposal comes from a report by the General Inspectorates of Social Affairs (Igas) and Finance (IGF) according to which "a migration of the social security number to identity documents would make it possible to respond to fraud in usurpation", while the use of biometrics for the carte vitale "would present more difficulties than useful contributions" and its cost "would be prohibitive".

"We discover the measure of merging vital card / identity card which is obviously technically impossible to implement and for which the CNIL is deeply opposed," had tempered Monday evening to AFP an executive of the Place Beauvau under cover of anonymity, for whom "the solution remains the biometric vital card that has been voted and that must be put in place".

"In the Igas-IGF report, it is well said that the Beauvau management has been seized of this subject," replied Bercy Tuesday morning, ensuring that the National Agency of secured securities "which depends on Beauvau" and the direction of the territorial administration had given "a favorable opinion saying that it is totally technically feasible".

Billions

According to Bercy, social fraud is estimated at 8 billion euros of social contributions "evaded for informal work" (either neither taxed nor declared, Editor's note), 2.8 billion in social benefits paid by the family allowance funds, 200 million by the pension funds of the general scheme, and "between 3 and 7% of certain health insurance expenses".

Gabriel Attal is giving himself ten years to lead the social fraud project, with a first step in 2027: "twice as many results as in 2022", i.e. a target of three billion euros in adjustments per year. These turnarounds have already increased by 35% over the past five years, he said.

It promises the creation of 1,000 additional jobs during this five-year period and an investment of one billion euros in information systems.

Engaged in an operation to seduce the middle classes, whose confidence in public services it wants to restore, the government wants to target pensioners over 85 living outside European borders in order to better identify those who have died but whose relatives continue to receive benefits.

According to Gabriel Attal, more than a million pensions are paid abroad, half of them outside Europe and 300,000 in Algeria.

The minister 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, to benefit from family allowances or the minimum old-age pension. The same applies to housing benefits (APL), which currently require only eight months of presence.

Gabriel Attal wants social protection organizations to be able to check airlines' passenger lists and will refer the matter to the National Commission for Informatics and Liberties (CNIL).

Regarding employers' contributions, he intends to increase the means of Urssaf to limit fraud, through hiring and better cross-referencing of data.

In addition, the plan provides for the payment at source of the contributions of micro-entrepreneurs by the platforms that make them work, like Uber or Deliveroo, because a certain number under-declare, which represents according to the minister "a social time bomb" insofar as they do not contribute enough.

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© 2023 AFP