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A major malfunction leads France Travail (formerly Pôle Emploi) to ask unemployed people for sums received in error. The amounts range from €5,000 to €100,000. A big blow for these job seekers.
Job seekers have been victims of a major bug from France Travail (formerly Pôle Emploi). The public operator asked them for large sums that they should not have received. These overpayments range from €5,000 to €100,000 per person or even more! The number of people affected is not known. Their profile is: they are close to retirement age. All regions of France are affected.
When a job seeker reaches the age at which he can receive a retirement pension without reduction – 67 years or less if he has validated the sufficient number of quarters – France Travail interrupts the payment of unemployment compensation (“ARE “) which leaves room for full-rate retirement payment from the pension fund.
In the Pôle Emploi agencies, a bad habit had taken hold. “The agencies had the practice of using a simple career statement provided by job seekers to record the expected date of their full retirement, instead of requiring official proof issued by Carsat,” explains in its report annual 2024 the national mediator of France Travail Jean-Louis Walter. The title of this document is: “Unemployment compensation: career regularization”.
“Significant malfunction”
When the bug was noticed, France Travail asked the unemployed to reimburse the amounts received in error and which, in reality, should have been paid by Carsat (Retirement and Occupational Health Insurance Fund). For these job seekers, there is no point in hoping for a payment from the pension fund because Carsat “does not provide for retroactivity in the payment of retirement pensions”, explains the mediator. These unemployed people are therefore doubly punished: they will not receive the sums they should normally have received. Enough to put a large proportion of these seniors in great financial difficulty. In his annual report, the France Travail mediator indicates that he is “awaiting a resolution of the situation between the institutions concerned”.
This “significant dysfunction” as reported by France Travail occurs while the public employment operator has been receiving data flows from Carsat in its information system since 2022 on the forecast date of full-rate retirement for job applicants. ‘job.
