Whether you are preparing to retire or approaching 67, an administrative counter is running silently without your knowledge. If you fail to act in time, up to 5,000 euros of accumulated rights risk disappearing permanently.
When it comes time to retire, the steps are numerous and sometimes complex: you check all your quarters, you calculate your pension, you validate your additional points… but you almost always forget one element, however crucial. For some, it is the periods worked abroad or the famous military service, but tens of thousands of seniors do not think to check a meter which nevertheless concerns them all.
And when it comes time to liquidate your rights, or from the age of 67, it’s a cold shower. At this very moment, without any notice, up to 5,000 euros risk disappearing permanently without the possibility of recovering them. And this amount can even rise to 8,000 euros for certain employees! The only solution? Know this largely ignored administrative trap, and take steps several months in advance to avoid losing this hard-earned money.
This money comes from your personal training account (CPF): from the age of 16 and throughout their working life, employees, job seekers, public officials, consular agents and self-employed workers have rights to request possible training. The CPF is funded to the tune of 500 euros per year, and capped at 5,000 euros, or 800 euros per year for unqualified employees, with a ceiling of 8,000 euros. But from the moment you take out your full pension, regardless of your age, or from the day you turn 67, your CPF is automatically frozen… and the money contributed can no longer be used.
Indeed, the CPF being intended for a professional training project, the Ministry of Labor considers that “people who have liquidated their full retirement rights or who have reached the automatic full retirement age which has been set at 67 years (…) no longer have to maintain their employability or develop new skills to adapt to the labor market”.
The only exception concerns people who have liquidated their retirement rights with a discount and who plan to return to work within the framework of combining employment and retirement. These can “not only accumulate new CPF rights but also mobilize them to finance professional training”. Also, even if you are still working after age 67 and you have not liquidated your pension, you are no longer eligible for the CPF and you will no longer be able to use the available money. You will probably have to fight with customer service to prove that you are still working and unlock your rights.
To avoid losing this money permanently, you must plan well in advance: you do not order training overnight. The legal deadline of 11 working days before the start of the courses, which may follow a specific schedule, must be respected. Also be careful, the CPF does not finance simple leisure activities: you must choose certification training. But nothing stops you from taking a certification in foreign languages for your next trips, from obtaining a diploma in IT, or from training in business creation if you want to become independent. The key is to use your rights before they are permanently frozen by the State. You will also have to pay 100 euros out of your pocket, corresponding to the remaining obligatory charge since 2024.
