Urssaf carried out 12,000 checks in Île-de-France in 2025 and wants to tighten the noose against fraud

The fraud is imaginative, but Urssaf inspectors organize their response. This is evidenced by the arrival on Friday of the Minister of Labor Jean-Pierre Farandou, to the Urssaf center in Champs-sur-Marne (Seine-et-Marne), one of ten in Île-de-France. The minister is introducing a bill to combat fraud, particularly hidden work, in order to offer new tools to inspectors.

According to Urssaf (the union for the recovery of social security contributions and family allowances), 12,000 control actions, half of them preventive, have already been carried out in 2025 in the region.

“Nearly 800 million euros in recovery were carried out in 2025,” explains Didier Malric, the boss of Urssaf in Île-de-France. Since 2013, we have been able to recover around 121 million. » On a national scale, social fraud is estimated at “13 billion euros per year”, underlines the minister.

Companies that suddenly disappear

The new law should make it possible to optimize recovery and provide new legal means against the strategies of fraudsters. To become more efficient, inspectors notably need to carry out anonymized procedures and, in order to recover money, the crux of the matter, to carry out precautionary seizures.

“Certain companies, ephemeral companies, summoned for recovery disappear, notes Jean-Pierre Farandou, who wants a blatant procedure to block the accounts directly. Currently, she has 15 days of deadline. »

“A fraudster finds a loophole, then everyone rushes in”

Very often, when officials arrived, the money was transferred… abroad. “They emptied the accounts,” notes an inspector. “Often, a fraudster finds a loophole. Then everyone rushes in, adds the regional director of Urssaf. We often have a company with a simple postal address, one, two or three employees and nothing else. »

The new law would make it possible to better cross-reference files and make the project owner responsible in the event of a cascade of subcontracting, particularly in the construction industry. This financial solidarity would allow inspectors, who often find themselves faced with cascades of subcontractors, to call it into question. Note that 80% of recovered companies disappear within a year following the recovery.

A tripled number of inspectors

“Sometimes, we just have two employees declared for a site where we would need 20 people,” explains Didier Malric. Sometimes, only one person is declared while hundreds are working undeclared. »

Faced with ever more imaginative fraudsters, Urssaf adapts and inspectors look at everything, carry out targeted searches, cross-reference files… “If a boss logs on to our website all the time at 2 a.m., we might think he is abroad,” says another inspector. We must be more vigilant. »

To be more responsive, the number of specialized inspectors increased from 35 in 2018 to 100 in 2026, and also 15 controllers specialized in the control of self-employed workers, without forgetting 39 managers and lawyers dedicated to the recovery of fraudulent debts.