Clerical error loses €2.5 billion
Mistake in counting pension contributions proves very expensive for social security body and French tax payers
A CLERICAL error may have cost the tax payer €2.5 billion.
The figure is an estimation put together by the newspaper Le Canard enchaîné to counter claims by the agency responsible, Cnav, that the error only cost €300 million.
The treasury department say the newspaper’s figures correspond with their own provisional investigation. Their official figures will be known in the coming weeks.
Two errors have combined to produce the loss. Firstly, all workers born before 1955 have been given a free three-month contribution towards their pensions each year.
Secondly, anyone claiming unemployment benefit between 1984 and 1998 has had their contributions miscalculated and could also have received extra contributions towards their pension.
The government has already stated that those already drawing pensions who have benefited from the error will not be asked to pay anything back.
According to the Figaro newspaper, it may be impossible to trace those who have benefited from extra payments as a result of being unemployed, as the former unemployment agency Unedic no longer has the details of transactions before 1999.
