Clément Viktorovitch returns each week to the debates and political issues. Sunday, April 23, a debate that we saw resurface this week, unexpectedly: should we fight more against people who defraud social benefits?
It all started with a short sentence, and things got carried away. The little sentence is that pronounced by Emmanuel Macron on Monday April 17, at the turn of his presidential address: he wants “fight against all fraud, whether social or fiscal”. The next morning, the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, chose to insist on a very specific situation: “Our compatriots, legitimately, are fed up with fraud. They are fed up with seeing people who can receive aid paid by the taxpayer send them back to the Maghreb or elsewhere when they don’t are not entitled to it. This is not made for that, the social model!”
It is therefore necessary to fight above all against one type of fraud in particular: fraud in social benefits – RSA, housing aid, minimum old age, etc. And above all, it would be necessary to prevent this money from going to the Maghreb. This is, of course, a real problem. Fraud on social benefits does not only weigh on our public finances. Above all, it threatens the trust we place in our social protection system. Social Security, it must be repeated, is a common good! It is enshrined in our Constitution: “Every human being who, because of his age, his physical or mental state, the economic situation, is unable to work has the right to obtain from the community suitable means of existence”. When some defraud, the whole legitimacy of this national treasure is damaged.
But it’s one thing to tackle a problem, it’s another to make it a priority. The choice of priorities is always political, and as such can be questioned. The social fraud mentioned by Bruno Le Maire is benefit fraud. It is estimated at 2.3 billion euros per year – official figure from Cnaf. That’s a lot, but it’s a lot less than social security contribution fraud – that is, concealed work by companies. According to Urssaf, it would cost the State 7 to 8 billion euros each year. At least three times more than benefit fraud, and yet you haven’t heard Bruno Le Maire talk about it, any more than tax fraud. According to the assessment of the Solidaires Finances publiques union, it would cost 80 to 100 billion euros each year. That is 35 to 40 times more than benefit fraud, mainly due to large companies and large fortunes. However, these are serious breaches of national solidarity, in proportions that have absolutely nothing to do with benefit fraud.
A political instrumentalization
It’s not new. This question has also been well studied by two political scientists: Vincent Dubois and Marion Lieutaud. Their research shows that the political focus on the theme of “social fraudsters” has increased tenfold under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy, without the problem itself having particularly worsened. It was pure manipulation, with the sole aim of creating the image of a serious and responsible government. Today, Emmanuel Macron is using the same trick, with an objective that seems obvious to me: to divert the attention of workers from the pension reform. But each time, this is done to the detriment of the most vulnerable people, on whom doubt and suspicion are cast, whereas above all they should receive our solidarity.
As for the Maghreb question, there are no official figures. One of the few things we know is that in 2012 and 2016, the National Old Age Insurance Fund carried out a major control operation on the retirement pensions received in Algeria. Result: very few cases of fraud were detected, so much so that the operation was abandoned.
racist stereotype
In the ocean of fraud, Bruno Le Maire has therefore chosen to speak only of social fraud. Among the social frauds, it focuses on those related to foreign countries. Among those that are linked to foreign countries, he only mentions the Maghreb, even though he has no data, and this only constitutes part of a fragment of a fraction of the problem.
>> “Racist prejudice”, “Poison of division”, “Diversion”: the left criticizes the words of Bruno Le Maire
To stigmatize, without argument, a part of the population on the sole basis of its origin: this is the very definition of a racist stereotype. We cross here, I believe, a border which should deeply question us. It’s not just about diverting attention anymore. But to make scapegoats.