Agirc-Arrco supplementary pension: soon a revaluation of small pensions?

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After having benefited from an increase in their basic pension, will the most modest retirees be entitled to the same treatment for their Agirc-Arrco supplementary pension? For the moment, the question is still pending.

Can one piece of good news hide another? As of September 1, more than a million low-income retirees were able to benefit from a revaluation of their pension. This increase, averaging around 50 eurosis a measure resulting from the pension reform adopted in April 2023. The increase only concerns the basic scheme and more specifically the Minimum contributif (Mico), a mechanism which makes it possible to increase the smallest pensions. If in total nearly 1.7 million retirees who have had a full career paid at minimum wage benefit from this increase, it remains to be seen whether such an increase could also be decided for the supplementary pension scheme for private sector employees, Agirc-Arrco.

The circuit is different for the supplementary pension because the system is not in the hands of the State, but managed by the social partners, i.e. employers and unions. The latter set up a working group in November 2023 to discuss the mechanisms that could be created to financially support the most modest retirees. A launch under constraint, since on several occasions the State has threatened to draw on the regime’s reserves (around 78 billion euros in 2023).

Discussions that drag on

THE first pressure date of September 2023. At the time of the application of the pension reform, which pushes back the legal age from 62 to 64, Olivier Dussopt, then Minister of Labor, requests that Agirc-Arrco participates in financing the revaluation of the minimum contributionThis is what the social partners refuse, arguing that it is up to them to decide and that, if a measure is taken, it must only concern private sector employees. Hence the launch of a consultation phase including four meetings organized between November and April. The aim was above all to take stock of the situation with projections on the financial balance of Agirc-Arrco in the short and medium term but also to have an idea of ​​the number of retirees who could benefit from a helping hand.

But since then, no further discussions have taken place and no meeting has yet been scheduled for September. However, initially, the State had given the social partners until the end of the first half of 2024 to submit their copy, under penalty of a levy. This threat seems to be receding, they are now taking their time to find the most appropriate measures, while ensuring the financial health of the regime. “In our view, it is necessary to increase the small pensions for people who have had interrupted careers and at the same time prevent the levy that the previous government wanted to make.”believes Denis Gravouil of the CGT. If the increase in the small pensions of former private sector employees is not abandoned, its terms, as well as its application date, are therefore still far from being decided.

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