The pre-hire declaration (Déclaration Préalable à l’Embauche, DPAE), formerly known as the single hiring declaration (Déclaration Unique d’Embauche, DUE), is an essential step for any employer before an employee starts. It ensures compliance with legal obligations and the social protection of the new recruit.
What is the DPAE for?
The purpose of the DPAE is to register your employee with the relevant bodies, first and foremost URSSAF (or the MSA for the agricultural scheme). In a single formality, it provides:
- for a first hire: the registration of your company with the general social security scheme and the unemployment insurance scheme, as well as enrolment with an occupational health service (occupational medicine);
- the employee’s affiliation to the local health insurance fund (Caisse Primaire d’Assurance Maladie) so that they receive social benefits;
- the opening of the employee’s social entitlements;
- the scheduling of the information and prevention visit (the pre-employment medical examination).
The DPAE is also a tool in the fight against undeclared work. It is, moreover, the starting point for setting up your employees’ social protection: group health insurance, death and disability cover, and supplementary pension
How to complete a DPAE?
The declaration must be submitted before the hire, and no earlier than 8 days before the scheduled start date. It is completed online, either on urssaf.fr or via the net-entreprises.fr portal, in two ways:
- by filling in an online form;
- by uploading a file generated by your payroll software.
After submission, you receive an immediate registration acknowledgement. URSSAF then has 5 working days to send you the acknowledgement of receipt, which summarises the declared information and serves as proof that the formality has been completed.
Good to know: if you submitted more than 50 hiring declarations during the previous calendar year, online declaration is mandatory, under penalty of a fine.
What information must a DPAE include?
Your declaration must state:
- the company’s registered name and address;
- the APE code;
- the SIRET number (or the filing number if registration is in progress);
- the contact details of the chosen occupational health service;
- the employee’s details: surname, first names, sex, date and place of birth, social security number (if they are already registered);
- the date and time of hire;
- the nature and duration of the contract, as well as the probationary period (for permanent contracts and fixed-term contracts of more than 6 months).
For more details, see the official DPAE fact sheet on the URSSAF website.
What are the penalties for omission?
In the event of omission, you are exposed to:
- payment of the social contributions owed to URSSAF, plus surcharges;
- an administrative penalty of 1,305 € per employee concerned;
- in the event of unintentional omission, a fine of 1,500 € (5th-class offence);
- in the event of intentional omission, penalties for undeclared work of up to 45,000 € and 3 years’ imprisonment for an individual, and 225,000 € for a legal entity.
Please note: from January 2027, the DPAE may also be carried out via a dedicated notification within the Nominative Social Declaration (DSN), for employees covered by the general scheme.
In which cases is no DPAE required?
The DPAE is mandatory for any hire of an employee covered by the general scheme, whatever the contract (permanent, fixed-term, seasonal, apprenticeship or professional training contract), and even when rehiring an employee already known to the company. Each contract gives rise to a separate declaration: an employee working for several companies is the subject of one DPAE per employer.
Some situations are nonetheless exempt from this obligation. You do not have to complete a DPAE with URSSAF when hosting an intern (who does not have employee status), or when you use a simplified scheme that already includes it: the Business Employment Service Voucher (TESE), the Foreign Firms Scheme (TFE) or the Association Employment Voucher (Chèque Emploi Associatif, CEA). In these cases, the hiring declaration is included in the scheme’s procedure.
How to correct an error on a DPAE?
An error in the declaration, whether a surname, first name, social security number or date of hire, can delay the opening of your employee’s social entitlements and expose you to penalties. It is therefore important to correct it as quickly as possible.
Online, only the information relating to the employment contract can be modified directly. For any other correction, you must complete a new DPAE, which will cancel and replace the previous one. If a declared hire does not ultimately go ahead, also remember to inform your URSSAF promptly, particularly if it was a first hire, in order to stop the opening of your employer account.
How MIA can help
The DPAE marks the starting point of the employment relationship, but it is only the first step in the employer’s social protection obligations. Once the employee is declared, you must set up the group benefits provided for by law and your collective bargaining agreement: group health insurance, death and disability cover and, where applicable, supplementary pension and employee savings. As a specialist insurance broker in social protection, MIA Assurances advises you on the solutions best suited to the size of your company and your sector, to protect your teams while keeping your costs under control.
