The milestone of 50,000 checks on requests for partial unemployment had been crossed, with a total of 225 million euros of fraud, more than half of which recovered, the Ministry of Labor told AFP.
Read also: Partial unemployment: 1,400 suspected fraud, according to Élisabeth Borne
The checks led to 9,500 “suspicions” of fraud and 440 criminal proceedings in progress, we learned from the same source.
In total, the fraud is evaluated at 225 million euros, more than half of which has already been blocked or recovered, on a global device of 30 billion euros.
In all, almost half of the fraud attempts were either reimbursed or blocked by the administration services, according to RTL.
130 million euros have not yet been recovered, for which legal proceedings and investigations are open.
"In view of the 30 billion mobilized, it is ultimately quite little"
This therefore represents less than 1% of the total budget devoted to partial activity, which was widely used in the coronavirus crisis, with nearly 9 million employees affected at the height of the crisis in April, a figure that fell to 2 , 4 in July.
The Ministry of Labor stressed to AFP that "
the amount of fraud may seem significant but in view of the
30 billion mobilized
, it is ultimately quite little
".
"
There are always crooks and people who take advantage of the system,
" the same source added.
Read also: 150,000 companies and 1.6 million employees on short-time work, announces Muriel Pénicaud
Elisabeth Borne specified that "
the controls will continue by working with the tax services, the urssaf as well as with the tracfin intelligence service to tighten the mesh of the net and ensure that we have effective controls
".
At the same time, nearly a thousand companies had underestimated the amount of compensation to which they were entitled - compensation that they were able to recover following these checks.