The survivor’s pension remains one of the most useful but also the most poorly known measures in our retirement system. It allows the surviving spouse, and sometimes ex-spouses, to receive part of the deceased’s pension. According to Retirement Insurance, nearly 10% widowers who could benefit from it never claim it, due to lack of information or confusion about the conditions. A shortfall which can exceed several hundred euros per month.
In 2026, the rules remain strict. The right is only open to people married or formerly married : PACS partners and cohabiting couples remain excluded. Different age conditions, resources and calculation percentages apply depending on the plans. “Added to this are special situations in the event of remarriage or multiple ex-spouses”reports Maître Benjamin Boulard, lawyer at the Paris Court of Appeal.
Conditions 2026: marriage, age, resources
For reversion to the general regime, you must be at least aged 55 years old and prove a marriage with the deceased. PACS and cohabitation do not confer any rights. The maximum resource thresholds for receiving this survivor’s pension in 2026 are 25,001.60 euros gross annually for a single person and 40,002.56 euros for a person living as a couple (in the event of divorce). Please note that there is no resource requirement for Agirc-Arrco, nor for the civil service. Some plans have other access ages: 50 years for the CNBF of lawyers, 60 or 65 years old for certain liberal professions.
How is reversion shared between spouses and ex-spouses?
The reversion is not always paid to just one person. In the event of remarriage of the deceased, “when the deceased has remarried, the basic survivor’s pension is shared pro rata temporis of the duration of each marriage in accordance with article L 353-3 of the CSS between the surviving spouse and the previous divorced spouse(s), specifies Maître Boulard. Moreover, “mechanically, in the basic plans and several supplementary plans, the death of one of the beneficiaries leads to an automatic increase in the share of the others, from the 1st day of the following month”.
Another special case, “for the basic survivor’s pension, case law has accepted that a former spouse who remarried and then re-divorced can recover a right to a survivor’s pension from his first spouse, without the death of the second spouse being required, provided that he has no right to a survivor’s pension from his last spouse”.
2026 amounts and instructions for application
The reversion rate is 54% for the basic private pension, 60% for Agirc-Arrco and 50% in the public service. The general regime provides for a guaranteed minimum of 331.94 euros per month if the deceased totaled at least 15 years contribution, with a ceiling of 1,059.75 euros per month.
The request is made on the info-retraite.fr platform for all plans. It is better to collect a death certificate, family record book, proof of resources and any divorce judgments. Rights take effect on the first day of the month following the request: a delay can cost several months of pension.
