Retiree relieved as €160,000 bill from French state is cancelled

A retired woman from northern France has had a debt of more than €160,000 cancelled by the state after being accused of receiving both a salary and a pension at the same time.

Dominique Lucas had been sent the €160,411 bill by the French Treasury in September 2022, reports Actu.fr.

She was accused of receiving an unauthorised combination of a salary and a pension simultaneously and ordered to repay the difference to the state.

She said the tax collection bill of more than €160,000 was the first she had heard that anything was wrong.

Ms Lucas, who lives in Chaumont-en-Vexin (Oise, Hauts-de-France), worked for an authority official for the local municipality between 2003 and 2019, but received her first pension under an early retirement scheme at the same time. She had also worked as a civil servant at the Maison d'Éducation de la Légion d'Honneur, between 1975 and 1992. 

She wrote to the prefecture of Oise - and even sent a letter to President Macron - in a bid to obtain an appeal for the bill, saying she was not in a position to pay. 

“I couldn't understand why I was being asked for the sum then, when I was never informed of anything before," she told Actu.fr. “I was in danger of going into debt.”

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Order cancelled (for now?)

A dedicated commission has now studied the case and ruled in her favour, and she has since received a letter from the tax authorities stating that “the tax collection order will be cancelled”. 

There is still a risk that she could be issued with a new tax collection order for the same periods, she said, but said she was relieved to see the initial €160,000 bill cancelled. So far, no further collection order has been issued.

“I was in danger of going into debt, even though I've always worked," she said, and added that she only receives a “modest” pension.