Gabriel Attal affirms that the government has succeeded in reducing the number of these “false” vital cards, “duplicate” cards belonging to people who have changed their social security system. True or false ?
While the government unveiled its major plan to fight social fraud on Tuesday, May 30, with the flagship measure of merging vital card and identity card, the Minister Delegate in charge of Public Accounts Gabriel Attal raises the issue of “false” vital cards” in circulation in France, which the government is currently trying to deactivate. “IThere are still a few hundred and we are committed to going all the way, but today, the subject is no longer that one”affirms the minister before specifying the number of false vital cards in circulation in France: “942 exactly according to the report of the mission of the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs”.
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This figure is almost exact since to be completely precise, there are 949 left. This is what we find in the report of the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs, Igas, which Gabriel Attal speaks of. These are “duplicate” cards, in excess, belonging to people who have changed their social security system. A little less than 300 of them belong, for example, to former parliamentarians: deputies, senators who, at the end of their mandate, switched from their special scheme to the general scheme and did not return their old card. .
The problem of vital cards without photo
Until 2018, these “duplicate” cards were not automatically deactivated and could therefore be used by fraudsters. In its report, Igas specifies that at the end of 2018, there were 2,035,000 of these duplicates. From 2019, they started to be deactivated automatically, so their number decreased until it reached 949 last September.
If Gabriel Attal says that this is no longer the subject today, it is because these duplicates are only a small part of card fraud. It is also the easiest to pay since each card issued is recorded in the Social Security files. Moreover, it is not because you have a duplicate vital card that you will use it to defraud.
On the other hand, there are vital cards without photo, all those emitted before 2007, or cards on which the photo is not very recognizable. Still according to the Igas report, today, one out of three vital cards in France has no photo and can therefore be used by several people. This fraud is very complicated to quantify.