For many employees, a work stoppage
seems innocuous. Behind each certificate, Health Insurance nevertheless scrutinizes abuses, to the point of having made fraud a major project since the Covid-19 pandemic.
In 2025, this hunt has reached a milestone, as Minister of Health Stéphanie Rist detailed in the National Assembly on April 1, during debates on the bill to combat social and tax fraud. Health Insurance says it has stopped a lot more fraud, particularly regarding sick leave, and this is not a simple detail.
Work stoppage fraud: amounts rising sharply
Health Insurance managed to detect and stop 723 million euros of fraud in 2025, an increase of 15% compared to 2024. Of this total, 49 million euros directly concern work stoppage fraudagain with an increase of 15% in one year, said the minister in response to Horizons MP Xavier Roseren.
“This increase in fraud detected and stopped is the result of measures adopted in recent years, and the mobilization of Health Insurance teams“, indicated the Minister of Health, Stéphanie Rist.
State services claim to have noted a continued increase in fraud since the health crisis, while certain primary funds are already testing tools capable of detecting falsified documents.
Secure form: a 10% reduction in fraud at the end of the year
In the area of sick leave, the minister highlights a specific tool. In terms of work stoppage, “the recent deployment of the secure shutdown declaration form made it possible to reduce fraud by 10% in the last quarter of 2025“, she added. This form aims to further lock in the declaration between doctor, insured person and Health Insurance.
These reinforced controls are part of a broader movement to combat social and tax fraud. For Health Insurance, each unjustified stoppage avoided represents unpaid daily allowances and therefore savings, in a context where expenses linked to sick leave remain very high.
Sick leave expenses deemed “more sustainable”
On the financial side, the warning is clear. In this area of work stoppages, the growth in expenses “is no longer sustainable”, according to Stéphanie Rist, who mentions “an increase of a billion every year for five years”. The total today reaches almost 20 billion euros, or 16% of community medicine expenses, a heavyweight in the Social Security budget.
Faced with this drift, the minister is announcing rapid decisions. “We will soon have the opportunity to present, with the Minister of Labor and the Minister of Public Accounts, measures to limit this growth.“, recalled Stéphanie Rist. A new plan is expected in April, while the government is already discussing options such as capping the duration of work stoppages at 30 days, with possible renewals within the limit of two months.