Repealing pension reform: would employees who leave after 62 really lose out?

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This is still only a distant hypothesis, but several political parties hope to repeal the pension reform and restore the legal retirement age to 62. A return to the old rules which raises questions about the situation of employees or new retirees, the first to be affected by the law which came into force on September 1, 2023.

The little tune has been in the air since the early legislative elections last June and July. Whether on the side of the left-wing alliance, the New Popular Front, or the National Rally, the watchword is the same: repeal the pension reform and return the legal age to 62, compared to 64 today. After the elections, the question of whether or not to touch the reform was invited into the negotiations at the Elysée to choose the future Prime Minister. In the presidential camp, the position is discordant. For Sylvain Maillard, MP for Paris, touching the pension reform “is a red line”he launched on France infoTuesday, September 3. The point of view is quite different from that of Yaël Braun-Pivet. The president of the National Assembly, on the microphone of France InterSunday, September 1, affirmed “don’t close the door” to a suspension of the pension reform.

If these procrastinations are part of the political game, for those most concerned, the new retirees or those who will soon be, this lack of clarity can be a real source of worry. The questions are numerous: will it soon be possible to retire at 62 ? How long will it take to repeal the law? What will happen to those who have already had to postpone their departure because of the reform?

An incompressible time to change the legal age

Let’s first talk about the timetable. To return to a legal age of 62, the measure must be discussed in Parliament. This could take several months. Let’s assume that it is adopted, we will still have to give the Retirement Insurance services time to implement it. Let’s remember that the pension reform adopted in March 2023 by Parliament has been implemented from September 1st of the same year. But the measures had been anticipated before the final vote. “We were told that work on its implementation had started discreetly in November 2022.”whispers a union representative from the Retirement Insurance. An anticipation which had therefore allowed to be ready in September. Today, the context is different. “There, we were told that as long as there was not at least the slightest political announcement, nothing would happen.”adds the unionist.

Technically, this means that in the event of a return to the legal retirement age of 62, the measure would not apply immediately. “In any case, if there were changes, it would be necessary to allow for a period of at least 5 to 6 months for the Retirement Insurance”warned the director of Retirement Insurance, Renaud Villard, in an interview this Wednesday, September 4 to the Parisian.

Pension amounts to be recalculated

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking, with the legal retirement age being raised by a quarter every year. Thus, workers born between September 1 and December 31, 1961 were able to retire at 62 years and 3 months, compared to 62 years previously. And, currently, it is the generation born in 1962 that sees its legal retirement age raised to 62 years and 6 months. These employees have therefore worked longer and will receive a higher pension than if they had left at 62. But in any case it will be too late, they will not be able to stop working at 62. The change would rather concern their number of quarters to obtain the full rate, also increased with the pension reform. If we return to the old rules, with fewer quarters necessary to obtain the full rate, then those who have worked longer could benefit from an increase in their basic pension (of 1.25% per additional quarter worked in the basic scheme). A new calculation that could be tedious for the Retirement Insurance services.

Added to this could be a risk of congestion. If the legal age were reduced to 62, the number of retirements could then quickly swell. “There would be a lot of departures at once, for that we need to train and recruit people”warns the director of Retirement Insurance. A series of projects that could therefore not be undertaken with the snap of a finger.