This is the payment method that causes you to lose the most money: the meal voucher. According to figures from Les Echos, “each year, 10% of the securities issued are not used, which represents 700 million euros”, or 145 euros per employee. This staggering sum risks increasing this year: on January 1, 2023, the value of meal vouchers increased.

In a context of galloping inflation, the maximum amount exempt from social security contributions for employers has increased from 6.50 to 5.92 euros. Thus, companies can now pay up to 13 euros in meal vouchers per day, compared to 11.84 euros previously.

The digitization of meal vouchers would have contributed to the resurgence of the phenomenon, according to Catherine Coupet, co-founder of Open!Eat. “When these meal vouchers were still only on paper, the expired 0.5% was reimbursed at the end of the year by the issuers to their customers and redistributed to the social works of the companies, as required by law. Since 2014 and the possible dematerialization of titles, we went with the card to 10% of the unspent sums”, she explains in the columns of our colleagues.

This loss can be explained by the authorized daily ceiling, increased to 25 euros on October 1, 2022, or by the generalization of teleworking since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic. And yet! To date, meal vouchers can be used for many purposes: lunch breaks of course, but also food shopping or dinners at a restaurant.