French authorities crack down on ‘cash-in-hand’ work practices
Cases involve property owners and home workers
A new bill aims to make it easier for companies hiring employers cash-in-hand to be penalised
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Thousands of employers were penalised for hiring workers ‘on the black’ in France last year, social security body Urssaf reported in its latest bulletin.
The organisation carried out over 38,000 actions including preventative (to advise on correct practice) and targeted (where fraud has been identified), against employers and workers for illegal cash-in-hand practices.
As a reminder, individuals who employ workers using cash-in-hand at home (without declaring it to Urssaf) risk the same penalties as major companies.
Since the start of 2025, around 13% of identified fraud cases relate to tax credits when using the ‘Pajemploi’ or ‘Cesu’ systems.
These cases see at-home help staff such as gardeners, carers, cleaners, etc, paid cash-in-hand without suitable declarations and the relevant social security payments.
Penalties for individuals paying self-employed workers this way and large companies using cash-in-hand payments are the same - you can read more about the penalties in our article here.
The targeted actions totalled from Urssaf totallted 7,665 in 2025, a 13% increase on 2024, with the vast majority resulting in unpaid contributions being collected.
Overall, the organisation recuperated over €1.5 billion in unpaid social security contributions and fines against malpracticing companies.
This is slightly lower than the €1.586 billion in 2024, but almost double that of preceding years – in 2023, some €788 million was recuperated.
Urssaf increased the number of warnings against employers by 25%.
Law debate in parliament
The government estimates that working ‘au noir’ (cash-in-hand) costs France up to €7 billion per year, and has made reducing the practice a major element of a new anti-fraud bill.
A major concern is the prominence of subcontractors for non-EU companies, often Chinese e-commerce sites, understood to regularly employ people cash-in-hand.
The bill, debated in parliament, would allow the state to target both subsidiaries using cash-in-hand workers and their parent companies.
Currently, only subcontractors themselves can be targeted, allowing the company to simply restart operations elsewhere.
Penalties would also be issued quicker, replacing the current 15-day closure period for companies using cash-in-hand employment with a 48-hour period.
The bill has already been approved by the Senate, and is currently being debated by MPs, with a final vote on the text expected on March 31.
It faces opposition from left-wing MPs however due to its wider elements which include authorities having greater access to certain data of benefits receivers, requiring all benefits to be paid to a bank account in the SEPA (European) system, and greater powers for the France Travail service.
