RSA, allowances … The government wants to rely on airline files to identify fraudsters
The goal: fight tax evasion, which costs the State nearly 300 million euros each year. The Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, has indicated that he wants to rely on airline files to identify people benefiting from social assistance such as the RSA or family allowances while residing abroad. These files refer to the registration in a database of information about a passenger that an airline deems necessary to establish a flight reservation.
“Today, the Social Security Funds can already check a certain number of things: electricity bills, banking transactions. I would like us to expand “explained Gabriel Attal this Wednesday on RMC. “That the Social Security Funds which have a doubt about the fact that a person has indeed resided on French soil can access the passenger files of airline companies, the PNR file (Passenger Name Record), to watch when a person has flown to France,” he said.
Access to this information would allow the State to know since when the beneficiary has been present on French soil. Today, you must have resided at least six months in France to receive the minimum old age and family allowances, eight months to benefit from APL and nine months to be eligible for RSA, according to the minister.
Asked about RMC on this position regarding a proposal by Senator LR, Bruno Retailleau, to increase the time necessary to receive the minimum old age to nine months, Gabriel Attal indicated that he was in favor of “harmonizing everything at nine months”. The former government spokesperson is due to present a new plan to combat social fraud in the coming weeks, valued at 309 million euros in 2021.
The government has already announced the ban, from 2024, on the payment of allowances (excluding pensions) on non-European bank accounts.
