Postponement of the legal retirement age, discussions on the financial balance of the system, scheduled end of certain special schemes, taking into account the arduousness and long careers... The debates on the pension reform, presented this Tuesday 10 January by Élisabeth Borne, can be technical and difficult to follow.
To discover
Withdrawal period, termination of subscriptions... What will change for consumers in 2023
To help you understand them,
Le Figaro
takes stock of the main issues of what promises to be the flagship project of the Macron 2 five-year term.
Read alsoWhy this new pension reform is essential
Why pension reform?
The government justifies its reform – and in particular the postponement of the retirement age – by its desire to balance the accounts of the pension system in the future.
"
The objective is to consolidate our pay-as-you-go pension schemes, which would otherwise be threatened, because we continue to finance on credit
", declared Emmanuel Macron during his wishes to the French on December 31.
“
Our pension system is structurally in deficit and it will be over the next few years
”, underlined Élisabeth Borne on January 3, based on the projections of the Pensions Orientation Council (COR), which is an authority on the subject. .
Work longer being seen by the executive as the only solution to bring the system back into balance.
A view challenged by some economists.
Read alsoRetirements: understand everything about the challenges of the reform in nine infographics
On the other hand, while some in Macronie, including the Head of State himself, had put forward the idea of financing other public expenditure with the savings made thanks to the reform, this hypothesis was recently dismissed by Élisabeth Borne like Olivier Dussopt.
“
Not a euro of the reform will be used to pay anything other than pensions
”, assured the Minister of Labor to
Parisian
on January 5.
What does the pension reform provide?
The main point of the pension reform wanted by Emmanuel Macron is the postponement of the legal retirement age, now set at 62 years.
If the initial project of the President of the Republic aimed to push back this age to 65 years, another track seems today to hold the rope: a postponement to 64 years, associated with an acceleration of the extension of the duration of contribution.
The latter was included in the Touraine reform of 2014, which plans to gradually increase this duration so that it reaches 43 years in 2035 for the 1973 and subsequent generations.
Read also Pension reform: 64 rather than 65, what difference for the economy?
Another major measure, the executive wants to upgrade small pensions.
The minimum pension for a full career will increase from 75% of the minimum wage today to 85%, or around 1,200 euros net per month.
It remains to be seen whether this measure will only concern future retirees or whether it will be extended to people who are already retired.
Who is affected by the reform?
As Élisabeth Borne explained to Le
Parisien
in early December, the reform will apply “
from the generation born in the second half of 1961
”.
The Prime Minister then clarified: “
Be careful, it is not a question of saying that overnight, we go from 62 to 64 or 65 years old.
Those born in 1961 will work a few months longer before they can reach the legal retirement age.
»
But the schedule for postponing the legal age of departure from 62 to 64 or 65 is not yet known.
It is therefore impossible to know today which will be the first generation concerned by a starting age of 64 or 65, the rate having not yet been revealed.
When will the reform apply?
According to the calendar announced by Emmanuel Macron, it will begin to apply from the end of summer 2023. Either in August or September 2023.
Where is the reform?
After months of consultations with the social partners and consultations with political groups, and already a postponement of its presentation, initially scheduled for mid-December, the pension reform, with its final arbitrations, will be unveiled this Tuesday, January 10 by Élisabeth Borne at the occasion of a press conference.
The project will then be presented to the Council of Ministers on January 23, before being examined by the National Assembly and the Senate from the beginning of February.
The government intends to have the reform voted by the deputies “
before the end of the first quarter
” – recourse to article 49.3 of the Constitution has not been excluded by the executive.
Read alsoAge of departure, hardship, special schemes… What are the contours of the future pension reform?
Which special diets could disappear?
The government's intention is to put an end, via this reform, to some of the main special pension schemes, whose members benefit from early retirement.
In the crosshairs of the executive are notably the special regime of the RATP and that of the electricity and gas industries (EDF, Engie, RTE), even that of the Banque de France.
Conversely, the special diets of the special diets of sailors, the Paris Opera or the Comédie-Française will be spared.
The government has repeated that it wants to favor the “
grandfather clause
”, that is to say that this reform will only concern new entrants to the schemes concerned.
An option already used during the reform of the SNCF in 2018.
Read alsoPension reform: public and private aligned, special schemes spared
Will hardship be taken into account?
The government has indicated that it wants to better take into account the hardship of certain professions in the future pension system.
Tracks have been put forward, but they remain to be defined.
Élisabeth Borne thus cited the creation of a "
professional wear and tear prevention fund
" for trades identified as difficult.
The Prime Minister also mentioned the idea of “
allowing new uses of the hardship account, for example for retraining leave
”.
This hardship account, whose official name is now professional prevention account (C2P), makes it possible to retire earlier, by accumulating hardship points linked to certain factors (night work, extreme temperatures, noise or even repetitive work).
Read alsoRetirements: hardship, a problem for… 17 years
Will having a long career always allow you to leave earlier?
The “
long career
” system, which allows workers who started working before their 20s to leave two years before the legal age, will be maintained, the government assured.
It could be supplemented by a device called "
very long careers
", said Olivier Dussopt on December 10 in an interview with the regional dailies of the Ebra group.
This system would allow those who started working at 16 or 17 to retire four years before the legal age, ie 60 or 61 in the future pension system.
Read alsoRetirements: the “long career” system, expensive and to be reviewed
At what age do the French retire today?
While the legal retirement age is now set at 62, the observed average retirement age is slightly higher.
At the end of 2020, all schemes combined, including that of non-employees and special schemes, it reached 62.3 years.
"
It has increased by 1 year and 9 months since 2010
", notes the Drees, the statistics department of the Ministry of Health.
Significant disparities remain according to the different pension schemes, for example between that of the private sector and the self-employed (63.3 years) and the schemes of the electricity and gas industries (58.8 years), the SNCF (57.8 years) or the RATP (56 years).
Read alsoAt what age do the French really retire?
What is the average pension for retirees today?
While the government wishes to raise the amount of the minimum retirement pension to 1,200 euros net, data from the DREES show that the average direct pension of retirees residing in France amounted, at the end of 2020, to 1,509 euros gross - after taking into account the possible increase for three or more children.
Net of social contributions, the average pension was 1,400 euros.
If, between 2015 and 2020, the average gross pension increased by 4.1% in current euros, it fell by 0.7% in constant euros.