Summary

Since 2010 the Caisse nationale des allocations familiales (CNAF), France's family-benefits fund, has assigned a risk score between 0 and 1 to every recipient of family allowances, housing benefit (APL), disability allowance (AAH) or income supplement (RSA). The score orders the queue for human-led administrative controls carried out by 101 departmental funds. Across four model versions the system uses logistic regression on about 40 variables trained on past control outcomes. Its operational target is overpayments above €600 a month sustained over six months — a target that CNAF's own 2018 review acknowledges mostly detects structural error rather than intentional fraud. About 32 million people are scored each month; about 600,000 algorithm-prioritised controls are carried out each year.

Documentation

Vincent Dubois's 2021 ethnography Contrôler les assistés documented the causal pathway. The document-access commission (CADA) compelled release of the source code in December 2022; the 2010 and 2014 code was published in 2023. La Quadrature du Net published the first civil-society analysis in November 2023, and Lighthouse Reports and Le Monde added quantitative reporting on disparate controls in December 2023. CNAF's own October 2025 simulation study, as reported, finds that RSA recipients (13% of recipients) make up 39–41% of the top 5% of risk scores under the 2025 model, and single mothers (14%) make up 37–40%.

Oversight

The data-protection authority (CNIL) issued an advisory deliberation in 2023. On 16 October 2024 a coalition of 15 organisations led by La Quadrature du Net asked the Conseil d'État to annul the system on grounds of indirect discrimination, data protection and fundamental rights; the Défenseure des droits filed supporting observations and, in October 2025, issued a ruling on the burden of proof. In January 2026 the coalition grew to 25 organisations and CNAF published the 2025 and 2018 code. As of April 2026 no ruling has been issued and the system continues to operate.

Note on evidence

Effects on employment, family, housing and health are recorded as insufficiently evidenced, not as absent.