Inflation compensation: these 170 million euros paid in error... and which will never be recovered by the State

On October 21, 2021, faced with soaring energy and fuel prices, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced, on TF1 at 8 p.m., the payment of an “inflation compensation” of 100 euros to the 38 million French people. earning less than 2000 euros net per month. With the clearly stated principle that this aid is received only once per person. More than a year and a half later, the Court of Auditors has just slapped the government on the wrist for... non-compliance with this rule.

“It appears from the work of the Court that the arrangements made for the payment of the inflation compensation did not ensure compliance with the principle of payment of a single aid to each beneficiary,” writes the first president of the financial jurisdiction Pierre Moscovici, in a letter addressed in July to Élisabeth Borne, successor to Jean Castex at Matignon, and made public this Wednesday. In detail, the Wise Men observed “a significant number of duplicates”, estimated at 1.7 million French people (i.e. 4.4% of the total number of beneficiaries), for an unduly paid amount of around 170 million euros. . As a reminder, this measure was initially expected to represent a cost of 3.8 billion euros for the State.

The figures from the Court of Auditors “must however be considered as a minimum”, writes Pierre Moscovici, given that the study of payments “does not include all payments”. Worse, these sums cannot be recovered by the State. “While social security organizations are the main payers of the inflation compensation, the text (of the decree, editor's note) does not provide that they can notify and recover overpayments,” regrets the Court of Auditors. It was in fact the beneficiaries who were responsible for repaying the undue sums. “On this voluntary and spontaneous basis, only 791,500 euros were recovered by the DGFiP (General Directorate of Public Finances, Editor's note), or around 0.5% of the amount of estimated duplicates,” notes Pierre Moscovici.

And the Court of Auditors pushed the government a little further, pointing out that such duplication was predictable. “The very design of the inflation bonus system exposed (...) the risk of multiple payments since the same person falling under several statuses simultaneously (employee, self-employed, beneficiary of social benefits, student, etc.) was de facto responsible to several organizations payers (employer, social security funds, etc.),” underlines the first president of the institution. At the time, the executive justified the principle of “automatic” payment of this aid by its desire to avoid creating a “gas factory”.

For the Court of Auditors, if it is too late to correct the errors made in the design of the inflation compensation, it must serve as an example, for the future, of what not to do. In the event that such exceptional financial assistance is decided again, the Sages recommend providing “the methods of exchanging data between all the organizations concerned by the implementation of the compensation”, as well as a clear legal framework. to monitor the payment of aid and the recovery of sums unduly paid. They also insist on the need for simplification, by entrusting “the responsibility for the allocation, payment, control and recovery of overdue amounts to a single national body”. At the risk of further waste of public money.