The Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts presented Monday to the “Parisian” a series of ways to better fight against social fraud.
Towards a single card to limit the risk of fraud? The government is considering a merger between the Vitale card and the identity card, in order to better fight against fraud in health benefits, announced the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, in an interview with the Parisian (paid article), Monday, May 29. The measure is part of a vast plan against social fraud which intends to double the number of adjustments by 2027.
“I want to gradually move towards merging the Vitale card and the identity card into a single secure card, as is the case in Belgium, Portugal and Sweden”, defend the minister. “I am launching a prefiguration mission to determine the timetable and the terms. Obviously, this project cannot be considered until the production times for the cards have returned to normal”, he added.
A series of leads unveiled
In this interview, the Minister in charge of Public Accounts unveils other measures of a plan to fight against social fraud, aiming in particular to double the adjustments between 2022 and 2027. The government wishes, for example, to control more pensioners living outside the borders European Unions, in order to prevent situations where benefits are paid when the beneficiaries are dead.
Gabriel Attal also explains that he wants “to strenghten” the conditions of residence in France “to benefit from social allowances”. 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. The same goes for the APLs, which only require eight months of presence at this stage.
Ten years to carry out this project
Very difficult to assess, social fraud represents a shortfall of several billion euros. For social benefits alone, this is estimated at between 6 and 8 billion euros per year, according to the Court of Auditors.
Gabriel Attal gives himself ten years to complete the social fraud project, with a first step in 2027: “twice as many results as in 2022”, ie a target of three billion euros in adjustments per year. These adjustments have already increased by 35% for five years, according to him. 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.