In 2022, €788.1 million in adjustments were made in the fight against concealed work by the Urssaf network, a player in the fight against Social Security fraud. Stable amounts compared to 2021, and which represent both undeclared contributions and contributions, and penalties (adjustment increases, questioning of reductions and exemptions from contributions). These more than 788 million euros are the equivalent of three million daily allowances paid to employees who are victims of accidents at work or 77,500 monthly unemployment benefits. The figure even reaches 3.5 billion euros over the period 2018-2022.
Increase among self-employed
The average amount of adjustments, all actions taken together, ranges from 146,969 euros. The vast majority of adjustments concern employers. Those of the self-employed, however, grew “by 100%” between 2018 and 2022″, declared Emmanuel Dellacherie, director of regulation, control and collection of Urssaf, during a press conference on June 8, 2023. ” Many micro-entrepreneurs do not declare or under-declare their activities.”
Regarding international mobility, i.e. the fact of seconding employees to other countries, “we observe situations of misuse of European rules, which leads to significant adjustments. The conditions are not met, the employee should be affiliated to social security but is not”, testifies Emmanuel Dellacherie. These checks often take longer than those carried out in France because it requires discussion with the social security services of the countries where the employees are affiliated. Of the 303 controls initiated between 2016 and 2022, adjustments generated 331 million euros. “At the beginning of 2023, there are 86 files in progress, estimated at 150 million euros. They concern 16 Member States of the European Union, and more particularly Portugal.”
In total, “Urssaf initiated more than 38,000 actions against concealed work in 2022”, presents Yann-Gaël Amghar, director general of Urssaf. Business is up nearly 5% in one year. “Of the 5,613 targeted control actions that we carried out, 83% resulted in a recovery,” he continues. “The controls make it possible to preserve the social rights of employees, including pension rights. They also contribute to fair competition between companies, and secure the financing of our social protection.”
What do you do with BTP?
Among the sectors most represented by turnarounds, construction takes first place. “It represents 66.5% of adjustments. This is due in particular to short contracts, subcontracting in cascade and the fact that employees are less well informed about their rights than in other sectors”, analyzes Emmanuel Dellacherie. It is also in the construction industry that the most preventive actions are carried out (27.4%) by Urssaf. These actions, programmed without presumption of fraud and for educational purposes, aim to raise awareness among as many people as possible of the issues and objectives of the fight against undeclared work, of the legislative and regulatory provisions in force, and, sometimes, to specify the financial and penalties incurred in the event of a detected fraudulent situation.
The Urssaf wishes, on this momentum, to modernize and improve its techniques for detecting social security deduction fraud, in particular through ‘datamining’, or the fact of developing new targeting methods. The network thus intends to strengthen the fight against fraud in the context of international mobility, increase the control of self-employed workers and optimize the recovery of debts arising from the fight against undeclared work. To carry out these missions, 240 positions specific to this fight will be created.
In addition, “we plan to systematize the fact of sharing the results with other public bodies. Partners such as the Family Allowance Fund are already reporting to us”, adds Yann-Gaël Amghar. The challenge, for the years to come, “is to better cover the risk”. The network provides five billion euros in adjustments between 2023 and 2027. Today, it has 1,500 inspectors, and more than 200 approved and sworn controllers. These employees are empowered to investigate and verbalize concealed work violations, ensuring compliance with the control procedures governed by the Social Security Code and the Labor Code.
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