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IStock / City Presse

After many years of hard work, you will be able to enjoy a well-deserved rest.

However, after having consulted your rights, you fear that the amount of your retirement pension will be insufficient to maintain a comfortable lifestyle.

No worries: you can legally exercise a paid activity while being retired in order to make ends meet, whether in the public, private or even as a self-employed person.

Combination of employment and retirement

Have you reached the legal retirement age giving right to a full rate basic pension from the general scheme and validated all your quarters?

You can opt for a total employment-retirement combination, and thus receive your salary and your basic and supplementary pensions.

If you do not meet all these award criteria, you are still entitled to partial accumulation under certain conditions for salaried employment or freely for self-employment.

Thus, if you return to work for your former employer, the combination of employment and retirement will only be possible six months after your cessation of activity and your admission to retirement.

Otherwise, you will suffer a waiting period for the payment of your basic pension which will therefore be suspended during your first six months of work.

After this period or immediately if you are not employed by your last boss, you can partially combine your pensions with income, provided that you do not exceed a certain amount.

The sum of 98.25% of your gross monthly salary and the gross amounts of your retirement must therefore be less than 160% of the minimum wage (i.e. 2,463.07 euros gross per month in 2020) or the average of the pay received during your last three months of activity, if this limit is more advantageous.

If the sum is higher, the amount of the excess will be deducted from your basic pension.

Remember to inform your pension fund in the month following your start to return to work.

Note also that this new activity does not create new pension rights.

Phased retirement

Another possibility is to adjust your end of career to start collecting your retirement pensions while continuing to exercise one or more part-time professional activities.

To benefit from this so-called progressive retirement, you must be at least 60 years old and provide proof of an insurance period of at least 150 quarters.

In addition, the part-time working time of your activity must represent between 40 and 80% of full time.

This end-of-career adjustment scheme is not, however, open to day-package executives, to travelers representing ushers, to taxi craftsmen affiliated to voluntary insurance and to corporate officers or company directors.


The amount of your gradual retirement depends on the pension rights you acquired on the last day of the calendar quarter preceding your gradual retirement, as well as the duration of your part-time activities.

The fraction of the pension granted to you is equal to the difference between the entire amount of your pension and your working time.

For example, a 60% part-time job entitles you to a pension equal to 40% of the full amount of your pension.

The main advantage of phased retirement is that it allows you to continue to contribute, and therefore to receive more when you leave permanently.

At the end of each period of one year after the start of your gradual retirement, your fund will send you a questionnaire to justify the duration of part-time work.

Be sure to answer it otherwise your pension payment will be suspended.

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An uncertain future

While the mechanisms for combining employment with retirement and progressive retirement are still relevant for the time being, their future remains uncertain.

Indeed, a vast plan to reform the pension system is in the pipeline of Parliament and could lead to overhaul these systems in the coming months.

  • Legislation

  • Retirement

  • Salary

  • Employment

  • Career

  • Rights