The Prime Minister has committed to discussing with social partners to improve pension reform. He has already put three avenues of work on the table: hardship, long careers and the retirement of mothers.
Capital Video: Pension reform: hardship, long careers… what Michel Barnier wants to improve
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– Prime Minister Michel Barnier discussed three ways to improve pension reform.
A helping hand to social partners to correct the pension reform. In an interview with France 2Sunday September 22, the day after the announcement of his government, the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, assured “trust the social partners to improve this law”. If the door is open for discussions, the topics discussed should be limited. The unions, which are opposed en bloc to the increase in the legal age from 62 to 64, may thus not have the opportunity to discuss this subject.
While he recalled his appetite for social dialogue, the tenant of Matignon nevertheless did not forget the unprecedented deficit that France is experiencing and therefore the necessary need to make savings. Under these conditions, it is difficult to go back on the main measure of the pension reform, which should pay off by 2027. almost 10 billion euros. “We have a law that provides a financial framework. I think that this financial framework must be preserved. Because what is behind it is, very simply, the fragility or the consolidation of our pay-as-you-go pension system which is a very important achievement.”warned Michel Barnier. Understand that it will be possible to discuss… but not to go back on raising the legal age by two years.
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Better consideration of hardship
The Prime Minister highlighted three main points he would like to address during his interview. The first is hardship. Let us recall that there is a professional prevention account (C2P) which allows, in particular, earlier retirement for workers exposed to occupational risks. To do this, depending on six risks (night work, repetitive work, in successive alternating teams, in extreme temperatures, in a hyperbaric environment and exposed to noise), employees obtain points which are then transformed into retirement quarters.
According to the Prime Minister, it would be possible to improve this system. He has not yet said how, but the unions have been making demands on this subject for several years. When he came to power in 2017, Emmanuel Macron removed four factors of hardship (manual handling of loads, difficult postures, mechanical vibrations and chemical risks), from criteria deemed too complex to implement by the employers. Employee representatives are asking that these criteria be reinstated but also that it be possible to include others such as psychosocial risks. A way, for them, to better take into account hardship.
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Improved retirement for mothers
The second point raised by Michel Barnier is the retirement of mothers. It is well known that women’s retirement is much lower than that of men. More precisely, it is on average 28% lower, a figure that even rises to 40% if we do not take into account the survivor’s pensionpart of the deceased spouse’s pension paid to the surviving spouse. To reduce this gap, various measures have been introduced into our pension system such as the‘granting of “free” quarters for the birth and education of a child. For example, eight quarters are granted per child for private sector employees. This allows them to retire earlier with a full-rate pension or to avoid a reduction. However, by pushing back the legal age from 62 to 64, these quarters are becoming increasingly useless. If they could allow a mother to retire with the full rate from 62, with the legal age pushed back to 64, even without these quarters, this mother will have worked enough to retire without a reduction. And she will not be able to benefit from a premium allowing her pension to be increased, because this system only begins to take effect from the legal age.
Aware of this bias, during the discussions on pension reform in 2023, senators introduced a premium for parents from the age of 63. Mainly intended for women, it allows you to obtain an increase in your pension from the age of 63, at a rate of 1.25% increase in the basic pension per additional quarter. A system which allows you to benefit from a maximum increase of 5% of his basic pension. But it remains limited and does not take into account all of women’s situations.
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Moreover, many of them, because they have not had a full career, do not benefit from the revaluation of small pensions provided for by the reform and which allows on average to benefit from an increase of 50 euros per month.«I followed my husband through his transfers, which did not allow me to have all the required quarters, so I receive a pension of 550 euros per month.testifies a reader of Capital. And I have no hope of being among the retirees affected by this revaluation.” However, according to the general director of the National Old Age Insurance Fund (CNAV), Renaud Villard, the 2023 reform was rather favorable for women. “The reform aims to reduce this gap (in pension levels between women and men, Editor’s note) because it is a reform that is aimed largely at average and modest pensions and this concerns many more women.”he estimated on the microphone of France InterSaturday September 21.
Review the long career system
Finally, the last line of work put forward by the Prime Minister is long careers. This is a system that allows you to retire before the legal age if you started working early. For example, if you have contributed 4 or 5 quarters (depending on your month of birth) before the age of 21, you will be able to retire at the age of 63. If it is before the age of 20, it will be 62.
But here again, this system has several biases, linked to its sometimes complex rules. Thus, the 4 or 5 quarters recorded at the start of a career must be contributions, that is to say linked to an activity. However, some active people, such as those who at the start of their career carried out community service work (TUC) or professional internships, cannot benefit from it. They therefore ask that the rules are changed. This will already provide plenty of topics for discussion between the social partners and the government.
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