Family allowance fraud will amount to 450 million euros in 2024

Detections of family allowance fraud increased by 20% in 2024 compared to the previous year, representing 450 million euros, Nicolas Grivel, director of the National Family Allowance Fund (CNAF), announced to La Tribune on Sunday .

This 20% increase compared to the previous year, "which was already a record", "does not mean that beneficiaries are committing more fraud than before , but that we have improved our control capacity", specifies the director, referring to more than "30 million checks" carried out in 2024. "80% of the sums" are recovered, he adds, while the estimated social fraud "does not exceed 3% of the amounts paid by the Caf" whose benefits amount each year to "around 100 billion".

"Traditional fraud is individual" with "a beneficiary who conceals certain information to obtain a higher benefit, who does not declare all of their resources or who does not mention that they are in a relationship," he explains.

It can also involve "residency fraud": while to receive benefits, you have to live in the country for at least nine months a year, some people do not say they are abroad, he explains.

The director of the CNAF nevertheless observes "a rise in organized fraud," through "networks that go well beyond individuals alone" and of which "beneficiary recipients can be the first victims": (identity theft, "European micro-entrepreneurs who declare work that does not exist," paid advice on social networks to obtain aid, etc.).

In the event of fraud, the person must return the money with a 10% penalty and in the most serious cases, the penalty is criminal, insists Nicolas Grivel.