Let's be clear from the outset: the edifying investigation published by Le Monde into the intrusive and ubiquitous procedures undergone by thousands of beneficiaries of the Caisse d'Allocation Familiales (CAF), France's welfare agency, poses fundamental issues for the future of social security and public services, in France, Europe and the rest of the world. By examining thousands of lines of unduly concealed code, meeting vulnerable people and single parents unjustly hounded for imaginary overpayments, the journalists have shown the dramatic consequences of these blind algorithmic practices on everyday lives.
It should also be pointed out that CAF employees are often the first to denounce these practices imposed by their management as well as political leaders. With limited resources, CAF manages not only family allowances but also housing benefits, the disabled adult allowance, the allowance for families and the RSA benefit for low-income people, childcare benefits, etc., for a total of nearly 14 million recipients (around half of all French households).
The operating costs of the CAF, like those of the health insurance funds and all the social security funds, have always been extremely modest: between 2% and 3% of benefits paid out, depending on the case, compared with 15% to 20% for private insurance companies. This efficiency is a good thing in itself for a public service, provided we don't push too far in this direction.
The problem is that political powers have constantly put pressure on the funds to further reduce these costs. The situation worsened when Nicolas Sarkozy came to power in 2007, emphasizing the need to mercilessly hunt down social security fraud and benefit recipients suspected of ruining the system.
Glorification of the 'first of the line'
Who cares if all the studies show that tax fraud and white-collar tax evasion involve much larger sums? Since it's hard to take it out on the richest, let's take it out on the poorest! This glorification of the "first of the line" and stigmatization of the poorest (deemed incapable of "crossing the street" to find a job and regularly accused of costing "crazy money" to the state) has become even more pronounced with Emmanuel Macron since 2017. Summoned to flush out fraudsters and crunch numbers with reduced human resources, CAF then embarked on the algorithmic drift uncovered by journalists.
The worst thing about this trend is that an anti-poor ideology ends up leading to a general deterioration in the quality of public service. If you haven't experienced this yourself, ask around. For several years now, if you send a message to the CAF on the interface provided for this purpose, the machine tells you that the messages currently being processed are those received three months ago, and that yours will have to wait (six months later, it's still waiting).
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