Pensions in France: the key points of the reform
With the pension reform, the legal retirement age will be gradually raised from 62 to 64, at the rate of 3 months per year from 1 September 2023 until 2030. © AFP/Joël Saget
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Postponement of the legal age, contribution period, mothers, employment of seniors, long careers, arduousness, special regimes... Here are the main points of the pension reform, adopted on Monday 20 March by Parliament.
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Legal age
The legal retirement age will be raised gradually from 62 to 64, at the rate of 3 months per year from 1 September 2023 until 2030.
Nevertheless, disabled workers will be able to retire from the age of 55, and those with disabilities at 60.
Contribution period
To obtain a "full-rate" pension, i.e. without discount, the required contribution period will increase from 42 years (168 quarters) currently to 43 years (172 quarters) by 2027, at the rate of one quarter per year. This extension was provided for by the Touraine reform of 2014, but on a less tight schedule.
The cancellation of the discount will remain at age 67 for those who do not have all the required quarters.
Special diets
Most of the existing special regimes, including those of the RATP, the electricity and gas industries and the Banque de France, will be extinguished according to the "grandfather clause", already implemented at the SNCF. The measure will therefore only apply to new hires.
Small pensions
The pensions of future retirees justifying a "full career" (43 years of contributions in the long term) may not be less than 85% of the minimum wage, i.e. about 1,200 euros gross per month at the time of the entry into force of the reform.
Current retirees with the same criteria will also benefit from this upgrade.
Employment of older people
A "senior index" will be created to better understand the place of employees at the end of their careers in companies. It will be mandatory this year for companies with more than 1,000 employees, a threshold lowered to 300 employees in 2024. Failure to publish it will be subject to penalties.
A new type of permanent contract will be created on an experimental basis to facilitate the recruitment of long-term jobseekers over 60 years of age, exempt from family contributions.
The rules on combining employment and retirement will be amended so that pensioners returning to work improve their pensions.
Phased retirement, which allows you to spend two years part-time before retiring, will be "relaxed".
Long careers
This is the most complex point. Those who started working early will always be able to leave earlier. Currently, starting a career before the age of 20 can lead to an early retirement of two years, and an entry into working life before the age of 16 can give entitlement to an early retirement of four years.
This system will be "adapted" with two new age limits: those who started working between the ages of 20 and 21 will be able to leave a year earlier, at age 63; those who started before the age of 20 will be able to leave two years earlier, i.e. 62 years; those who started before the age of 18 will be able to claim their right to retirement four years earlier, i.e. 60 years of age; Those who started before the age of 16 will be able to finish their career six years earlier, i.e. 58 years.
The minimum contribution period, once the expected age is reached, will now be set at 43 contributory years for all long careers.
Mothers, orphans
A pension premium of up to 5% will be granted to women who, as a result of the validated trimesters for maternity and child-rearing, exceed the 43 years of service required for a full pension, one year before the statutory retirement age.
The number of trimesters for education allocated to the mother, in the sharing between parents, is increased.
The child pension increase will be extended to professionals and lawyers.
Orphans will be able to benefit from the survivor's pension of their parents.
Onerousness
The professional prevention account already taking into account night work and other criteria of arduousness can be used to finance professional retraining leave.
Other criteria such as carrying heavy loads, strenuous postures and mechanical vibration will be taken into account through a new "investment fund in the prevention of occupational wear and tear".
Among civil servants, the "active categories" including police officers, firefighters and nursing assistants will retain their right to early departure.
(
With AFP
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