Bruno Chrétien is president of the Institute for Social Protection.
During Emmanuel Macron's first five-year term, improving the situation of women was at the center of all attention.
However, it was quickly necessary to become disenchanted in matters of retirement.
At the time of the presentation of the universal pension plan, the reality turned out to be far from the promises.
The project led by Jean-Paul Delevoye, thus planned to delay by seven years the age of departure in reversion (remember for the record that reversion corresponds to a fraction of the retirement pension of the deceased allocated to the surviving spouse).
In addition, the new increases granted to mothers were to increase the pension from the first child.
Read alsoDoes pension reform really penalize women?
In 2023, everything changed.
The ambitions of the reform presented on January 10, 2023 by Élisabeth Borne, concerning women, are very modest.
First, the periods validated under the old-age insurance for stay-at-home parents (AVPF) will now be taken into account in the “long career” system.
Nearly 3,000 women will be able to retire earlier.
Secondly, they will benefit like men from the increase in the minimum pension raising the pensions of those who have worked part-time.
Next, maintaining the age for cancellation of the discount at 67 will be favorable to women who have to wait until this age due to a career break.
Access to the full rate being maintained at age 67 despite the extension of careers up to age 64;
mechanically the discount applied to the pensions of women, who most often have incomplete careers, will be lower.
The maximum reduction applied in the event of an incomplete career will no longer be 25% but 15%.
Finally, the government will ask the Pensions Orientation Council to open a project on the modernization of family rights and the unification of the survivors' system, making it possible to correct the current system.
It is clear that the cause of women is not making much progress in the project presented by the Prime Minister.
Bruno Christian
While the gap between men's and women's pensions remains at an average of 24% to date (it was 28% in 2010), it is clear that the cause of women is not making much progress in the project presented by the Prime Minister.
This also reflects the absence of the subject during the 2022 presidential campaign. had been brought by the candidates.
The main avenues for a modernization of reversion - of which women are the main beneficiaries - are postponed to new work by the COR when everything has been known for a long time.
Read alsoPension reform: few financial margins
Several measures seem necessary.
To begin with, it is necessary to harmonize the conditions of resources between the different schemes.
How can we justify the strong discrimination between the different regimes on this point?
Indeed, for civil servants, the reversion is granted independently of the level of income of the person who benefits from it.
But for employees and the liberal professions, the basic pension is means-tested, while the supplementary one is not.
Finally, for craftsmen and merchants, the conditions are even more restrictive because the basic and complementary reversion are both means-tested.
This therefore creates a very strong inequality, which should be corrected to place all married women in the same boat.
As marital life situations are increasingly complex, our legislation must urgently adapt to this new factor.
Bruno Christian
It is also necessary to liberalize the division of the rights of the insured to the benefit of the surviving spouse: in pension schemes taken out on an individual basis, many contracts provide that, when retiring, the insured can decide to grant to his spouse all or part of his rights upon his death.
With a few very rare exceptions, such as the notaries' pension scheme – which is very well designed in this area – the compulsory schemes are content to pay out between 50% and 60% for the sole benefit of the spouse.
As marital life situations are increasingly complex, our legislation must urgently adapt to this new factor.
The insured person should be free to choose to reduce his pension in favor of that of his surviving spouse.
This n'
would entail no additional burden on pension finances.
Let's not forget that in the end each couple knows better than the State what is good for them.
Read also François Rebsamen's alert on pensions: "The government must abandon its age measurement"
The pension reform includes many interesting measures that should be welcomed (improvement of gradual retirement and of the accumulation of employment and retirement, increase in modest pensions, etc.).
We can however regret that the improvement of the situation of women, and particularly of widows, is the great forgotten.
Let's hope that the parliamentary debates that are beginning will be able to change their situation.
SEE ALSO
- Pensions: in a heated atmosphere at the Assembly, Elisabeth Borne tries to counter the controversy over "penalized" women
