More than 34 million euros recovered from fraudsters by Urssaf
Urssaf is the Union for the collection of social security contributions and family allowances. An acronym that frightens, especially unscrupulous employers who are not always in good standing when it comes to paying their contributions. And in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, they are a certain number if we refer to the latest figures from the organization. But if the latter increases checks and adjustments, the abyss of hidden work fraud remains almost unfathomable.
In Nord-Pas-de-Calais, as elsewhere in France for that matter, Urssaf’s main battle horse remains the fight against undeclared work. Otherwise called “black work”, it is basically to make people work in the declarants and, thus, avoids paying social security contributions. It’s all good for the fraudster, less for society: “This kind of practice jeopardizes the financing of Social Security, creates a breach of equality in competition and deprives the employees concerned of their social rights”, insists Laury Ducombs, director of Urssaf Nord-Pas-de-Calais.
A fraud required at 7 billion euros at the national level
And here, we are talking about big money. Very big money even, which is why the organization is going all out to recover part of the unpaid contributions. In the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais, 34.5 million euros were adjusted in 2021, or 4.37% of the total national amount of 789.4 million. To the average person, that seems like a lot, except it’s nothing compared to the apparent amount of fraud. In France, just for the last year, the Urssaf benefits from the loss linked to hidden work at 7 billion euros. If the figure for Nord-Pas-de-Calais has not been revealed, it can be estimated that it exceeds 300 million by applying the same calculation rule as for the recovery.
And yet, it is not for lack of spending resources, in particular thanks to a brigade of 80 agents who carried out more than 1,700 checks last year giving rise to around 300 adjustments. But, failing to be able to count on the civility of the employers, it would take 600 additional agents to try to recover the 300 million phantom contributions. Especially since the fronts are multiplying for the Urssaf. “We are seeing the emergence of new trends in fraud, on part-time work or the secondment of employees”, assures Laury Ducombs. Not to mention the explosion in the number of auto-enterprises and the more traditional sectors of construction, transport and hotels and restaurants.
“As with any form of crime, fraud is evolving to take advantage of new devices, which requires us to constantly monitor”, recognizes the director of Urssaf Nord-Pas-de-Calais. In addition to the exploitation of employer data, the profiling of companies at risk, this now also involves monitoring collaborative platforms.