€351 million is the record amount of family allowance fraud detected in 2022. The National Family Allowances Fund (CNAF) carried out 32.4 million checks last year, which identified 48,692 intentional frauds, a number up 11.6% compared to the previous year, according to data revealed on Sunday by the JDD. The total amount of unfairly, but intentionally collected, amounts to €351 million compared to €309 million in 2021 (+13.5%). Less than 10% of frauds (4,322) were the subject of a complaint.
It is the fraud of the RSA, the active solidarity income, which causes the most cheating: 60% of the sums unduly received. This is followed by the activity bonus (13%), housing benefits (12%) and the disabled adult allowance (3%).
Cross-files, site visits
The technicians in charge of controls carry out the checks by cross-checking the information provided by the beneficiaries and cross-referencing it with that available to other bodies, such as Pôle emploi or the tax offices. "Our controls aim to ensure the right of justice, that is to say to pay the right amount with regard to an individual situation, and to rectify errors when there are any," Nicolas Grivel, director general of the CNAF, told the Journal du Dimanche.
And it is not so much the number of fraudsters that has exploded, but the fact that the controls know how to reach their target better and better, according to the explanations given to France Info. Moving around is, for example, a very effective way to verify information. In 2022, of the 32 million or so checks, more than 134,000 were carried out on site, 10,000 more than the year before. 700 CAF agents are legally sworn to go to the homes of beneficiaries.
And if the average damage reaches 7,217 euros, accumulated over an unspecified period, the "small" fraudsters are not those who benefit the most from collective generosity. Thirty "super investigators" of the CNAF have been working for two years at the National Service for the fight against fraud at stake (SNLFE) alongside tax specialists or Urssaf, to flush out large-scale scams, whether hacking bank data, identity theft or the creation of fake companies to capture pensions.
With a spectacular result: their 14,000 controls detected 69.4 million euros of sums unduly affected, 58% of which were fraudulent. "These phenomena of fraud in organized gangs are to the detriment of recipients and undermine national solidarity," regrets Nicolas Grivel to the weekly.