Pension reform will push 50,000 people to "postpone their departure" this year

Europe 1 with AFP 4:54 p.m., January 23, 2023

The increase in the legal retirement age from September, a flagship measure of the pension reform presented by the government, "could lead 50,000 people to postpone their departure" this year, estimated the High Council of Public Finances (HCFP).

They will be the first to bear the brunt of the reform: among the future retirees of 2023 - probably more than 700,000 as in previous years - one in fifteen will leave later than expected.

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"Lower spending"

“The three-month increase in the legal age”, supposed to increase to 62 years and 3 months on September 1, “could lead (…) of the order of 50,000 people to postpone their departure”, indeed indicates the HCFP in its opinion, made public on Monday, on the bill sent to it.

A text whose "incomplete character" does not allow it "to assess the medium-term impact" of the pension reform", which must raise the legal age to 64 years in 2030, at the rate of three months per year.

But "given the information available", this age measure "would lead to a reduction in expenditure" of 200 million euros this year.

The "maintenance in employment" of these assets must also generate "additional revenue", not quantified but which "should be low".

In any case insufficient to compensate for the revaluation of small pensions, "whose cost (...) has been provisioned up to 400 million".

By adding 100 million for "measures on hardship and professional wear" and as much for those "in favor of employment-retirement transitions", the slate of "additional expenses" stands at 600 million euros.

Or an “estimated net cost of 400 million”, continues the HCFP, which concludes that “the pension reform will have a very small impact on public finances in 2023”.