French Right-Wing Proposes Tightening Procedures For Paying Retirement Pensions To Algerians

The right-wing Republican Party proposed to tighten the procedures for the payment of pensions to immigrants residing outside the territory of this European country, of which Algerians will be at the forefront of those affected, since they benefit from a quarter of what France pays to retired people abroad.
These developments came through a proposal for an amendment to the French Finance Law for the year 2024, presented by 19 deputies of the National Assembly from the Republican Party, which was reviewed by “Echorouk”, and aims to reduce what they described as cases of fraud in receiving retirement pensions abroad by unknown or dead persons.
It is clear from this procedure, if it is implemented, that the verification of the life of the person receiving the pension will include all beneficiaries without exception, since the procedures previously included only cases in which French services were suspected, while the rest would be satisfied with sending a certificate of life once every six months or once a year, which means that Algerians will be the first to be affected, since they are the largest beneficiaries of French retirement pensions in terms of population.
It was stated in the proposed amendment that Algeria alone, for example, represents 26 percent of French pensions paid outside the European Union, with a total of 815 thousand and 254 euros, while fraud cases, according to a report by the French Accounting Council, amounted to 200 million euros in 2017, 53,604 people living outside French territory benefited, out of 6.5 billion euros, which is the value of retirement pensions paid by French funds outside the territory of the country.
The proposal was as follows: “Article L161-24-1 of the Social Security Code is supplemented by the following sentence: “If the beneficiary referred to in Article L161-24 of this Code resides abroad, this proof of residence shall be considered valid as soon as it is authenticated”, effectively by a diplomatic or consular representative of the French Republic, legally recognized as a civil status employee”.
The delegates proposed to compensate the expenses of the French State resulting from the actual control procedures to guarantee the life of pensioners living abroad by approving an additional tax on tobacco, provided for in chapter four of the first part of the law on taxes on goods and services.
The Republicans also justified their proposal by pointing out that the life certificate, which is usually sent from the country of the pensioner to the various French funds, only contains the civil protection visa for the country in question, with restrictions imposed on access to foreign civil status records.