The combination of employment and retirement covers two distinct situations. First, the free accumulation, which allows you to return to professional activity without income limit, provided you have met the conditions for the full rate and paid all your retirement pensions, both basic and supplementary.
Failing to meet one of these conditions, the insured falls under the capped accumulation : he can work while receiving his pension, but within the limit of an income ceiling, beyond which retirement is suspended. For the general system, for example, the sum of earned income and retirement pensions must not exceed the monthly average of earned income for the last three months of activity, or 1.6 times the minimum wage if more advantageous.
The combination of employment and retirement made generating new rights by the 2023 pension reform
The 2023 pension reform has reinforced the attractiveness of the system. Until now, contributions paid within the framework of a cumulation of employment and retirement did not open any additional retirement rights. Since then, cumulative retirees can acquire new retirement rights, giving rise, when their activity definitively ceases, to the payment of a second pension – these additional rights being, however, capped.
Result: the combination of employment and retirement is becoming a permanent fixture in the career paths of seniors. A dynamic driven by an increase in life expectancy, and a growing aspiration to remain active longer, for some by choice, for others by necessity.
From 2027, a change of direction with a strong limitation on the combination of employment and retirement
From January 1, 2027, the situation will radically change. The rules for combining employment and retirement are changing significantly, with a very marked tightening before age 67.
First, before the legal age of departure, that is to say 64 years for generations born from 1969, accumulation would no longer be possible. Any resumption of activity would result in a reduction of the pension in proportion to the income received, which could go as far as its total elimination. In fact, combining employment and retirement before the legal age would therefore no longer have any financial interest.
Then, between the legal age and 67 years, accumulation would remain authorized, but within strict financial limits.. Income ceilings would be introduced and, if exceeded, the pension would be partially reduced. An operation close to the current capped accumulation, the thresholds of which should be set by decree but which have already been announced around 7,000 euros per year.
Finally, it is only from the age of 67, the automatic age of the full rate, that accumulation would become free and productive of rights. In other words, before this age, policyholders would no longer have the possibility of accumulating without a ceiling or generating new retirement rights, even if they already benefit from a full-rate pension thanks to the acquired quarters.
Concretely, the combination of employment and retirement “without constraints” and generating new rights would be reserved only for insured persons who have reached the age of the full automatic rate. For others, the system would lose a large part of its economic interest.
Why such a change of direction?
Limiting the accumulation of employment and retirement until age 67 is not just adjusting a technical system. It’s a strong choice, particularly in terms of an end-of-career model.
The challenge is no longer just to make it possible to work after retirement, but to keep seniors in employment longer, beyond the legal age and the full rate. By causing the employment-retirement combination to lose its main financial advantages, the gradual retirement has established itself as a preferred alternative, particularly since the lowering of the age of access to 60 years. It allows you to reduce your working time and receive part of your pension, while continuing to contribute.
This tightening is part of our demographic challenge more generally. France is already facing a structural imbalance in its retirement system: more and more retirees for fewer and fewer workers, a trend which mechanically weakens the pay-as-you-go model.
The combination of employment and retirement is therefore probably not set to disappear. But it could return to what it was originally: a targeted system, reserved for certain situations, and no longer a widely accessible lever for end-of-career optimization.
(1)DREES, Retirees and pensions, 2025 edition.
