IFRAP awards the government a score of 8/10 for survivor's pensions. Figaro
3.8 million people in France receive a survivor's pension from their deceased spouse (4.4 million if non-residents are counted). 88% are women. Among these people, 600,000 receive only this so-called “derived rights” pension. The average amount is 642 euros for widows and 304 euros for widowers. The annual cost of reversion is today around 30 billion euros, or 10% of total retirement expenses.
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Today, the rules for reversion are very different from one plan to another: the age at which one can receive the reversion differs from one plan to another between 50 and 65 years and there is no minimum age in the public service. The conditions of resources are not the same either: if the resources of the surviving spouse exceed 20,550 euros per year, the CNAV reversion is not paid for example, while the reversion of the complementary retirement yes, and that the public agents do not have resource criteria. In addition, the percentage of the deceased's pension paid also varies between 50 and 60%.
The rules become the same for everyone
It is clear here that inequity is the rule and that two people in an identical widowhood situation will not have the same amount of reversion at all if they have worked in the private or in the public for example. The amount of the public reversion being much more generous.
In the new system, the reversion rules will be the same for everyone. Reversion will be accessible from the age of 55, provided that you have been married for at least 2 years and will not be subject to any means test. The system chosen will guarantee widowers that their standard of living will be maintained (including pension income and employment income) up to a percentage of the couple's pensions which will be set at 70% by decree. As long as you don't remarry. The new system will apply to the surviving spouses of deceased retirees from the new plan, i.e. from 2037.
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The subject of the reversion of divorced persons will be dealt with by ordinance for the question of the division of rights during the period of community.
According to the simulations carried out for the impact study, the projection of reversionary expenditure should be almost identical until 2048 before decreasing compared to the expenditure forecast in the current system of 2 billion by 2050.
So what about this new way of calculating reversion? The objective of simplification is welcome: it was indeed hardly understandable that widowhood did not have the same impact depending on the pension plan. Reversion will therefore be a universal right and no longer a right depending on the status and this development was necessary. The 70% guaranteed percentage of the couple's previous income - if not calculated too restrictively - is also good news. Hence the rating of 8/10
The Macronometer is a site of the iFRAP Foundation. Figaro
The Macronometer, observatory of government reforms, is a site of the iFRAP Foundation in partnership with Le Figaro . It is a tool dedicated to the evaluation of Emmanuel Macron's five-year term: econometric evaluation in relation to his electoral program and to the announcements of his government. With Le Macronomètre, government action is noted out of 10 every Wednesday before the Council of Ministers and becomes readable at a glance. The Macronometer allows everyone to make an opinion on the keeping or not of the promises of the President of the Republic and on the effectiveness of government reforms.
