PRESS RELEASE
Date: 16 May 2023
FINANCE AND PUBLIC ACCOUNTS
CERTIFICATION OF THE FRENCH GENERAL SOCIAL
SECURITY SYSTEM AND CPSTI ACCOUNTS
–
Financial year
2022
The Court of Accounts has issued a qualified opinion on the 2022 accounts of four of the five
benefit branches of the general social security system, as well as those of the recovery activity. It
has issued an adverse opinion on the 2022 accounts of the family branch (CAF network) and the
National Family Allowances Office (CNAF). The amount resulting from errors that were not
corrected by internal control measures is far too high: by the end of 2022, €
5.8 billion in undue
payments and wrongly withheld benefits had been recorded, which will never be resolved. This
amount has doubled in four years. What is more, control measures have not been adapted to this
negative development. Despite its warnings last year, the Court has not noted any action to
improve the situation in the short term and calls on CNAF to step up its efforts to improve the
quality of settlements.
The family branch and CNAF
The Court of Accounts has issued an adverse opinion on the accounts of the family branch and those
of CNAF. Errors relating to declaratory data used to pay out benefits and not corrected after 24
months continued to rise, reaching €5.8 billion. These errors represent 7.6% of the amount of
benefits, and concern in particular income support (RSA), the benefits for low-paid workers and
housing benefit. In particular, a quarter of the amounts paid out under RSA are affected by errors.
Errors related to internal transactions carried out by family allowance funds (CAFs) remain at a high
level (€1.7 billion).
The workplace illness and accidents-occupational diseases branches, and CNAM (National Health
Insurance Fund)
The Court has issued a qualified opinion on the accounts of the workplace illness and accidents-
occupational diseases branches and those of CNAM. The estimated amount resulting from errors
affecting the payment of healthca
re costs reached €
3.4 billion (3.3 % of the total amount), mainly to
the detriment of health insurance. This does not include payments made to insured persons who no
longer meet the conditions for coverage under the health insurance system, nor does it include
billing errors by public and private not-for-profit health agencies or proven fraud. Fraud, estimated
by CNAM on an as yet incomplete scope, shows a significa
nt loss (€
0.9 to 1.3 billion). In addition, one
in 10 of newly-awarded daily allowances are incorrect.
The old-age branch and CNAV (National Pension Fund)
The Court has issued a qualified opinion on the accounts of the old-age branch and those of CNAV. In
2022, as in 2021, 1 out of 7 pension benefits granted to former employees included a financial error.
The errors made by the pension funds in 2022 concern 1.1 % of the amount of new benefits. These
errors will have a cumulative impact of €
1 billion until the pensioners die. With regard to pensions
for the self-employed, there are uncertainties as to how the contributions they have paid are taken
into account, and calculation errors are not measured with the same precision as for employees.
Autonomy and CNSA (National Solidarity Fund for Autonomy
)
The Court of Accounts has issued a qualified opinion on the accounts of the autonomy branch. Errors
affect some of the accounting records. The internal control of transactions carried out by CNSA or on
its behalf by the healthcare and family branches presents weaknesses.
Recovery activity (URSSAF network) and ACOSS (Central Agency for Social Security Funds)
The Court of Accounts has issued a qualified opinion on the accounts of the recovery activity. The
Court has issued an adverse opinion on the 2021 accounts owing to a disagreement concerning the
accounting treatment of social security contributions from the self-employed. In 2022, a discrepancy
was noted in the presentation of the accounts, as the comparability of this income between 2022
and 2021 was not ensured (income was incorrectly reduced in 2020 and increased to balance this in
2021). Lastly, there are shortcomings in the controls designed to reduce the risks of inaccuracy and
incompleteness in social security contributions.
CPSTI (Board for the Social Protection of Self-Employed Workers)
The Court of Accounts has certified the 2022 accounts of CPSTI and the social welfare systems that
come under it, for the first time since it was entrusted with the task of auditing these accounts (the
Court was unable to certify the 2020 accounts and issued an adverse opinion on the 2021 accounts
because of the accounting treatment used for income from social security contributions). Although
progress has been made, the Court notes that there are still weaknesses in the internal control of the
activity of the CPSTI, whose management is entirely delegated to the bodies within the general social
security system.
The Court of Accounts
has identified four priority areas for improving the reliability of the accounts
of the general social security system:
•
act decisively to reduce the uncertainties that affect accounting records;
•
reduce at source the financial risks linked to the management of social security benefits and
contributions;
•
increase controls over management processes with high financial stakes;
•
integrate internal control concerns into the design of new measures, to stop the risk of undue
payments and limit the risk of non-recovery.
Read the accounts audit for the general social security system and CPSTI accounts
PRESS CONTACTS:
Julie Poissier
◼
Head of Media Relations & Social Networks
◼
Tel.
+33 (0)6 87 36 52 21
◼
julie.poissier@ccomptes.fr
Eran Guterman
◼
Press Relations & Social Networks Officer
◼
Tel.
+33 (0)6 11 41 46 64
◼
eran.guterman@ccomptes.fr
@Courdescomptes
ccomptes
Court of Accounts
Court of Accounts