62 years old, 64 years old, 65 years old… At what age will you retire? Currently, you can retire at age 62, whenever you want, on the 1st day of the month you choose. For example, if you prefer to leave as soon as your birthday has passed, you can do so on the 1st day of the month following the one in which you blew out your candles. Two scenarios then arise:
These rules will soon change. With his pension reform, Emmanuel Macron wants to shift the legal retirement age by three years, to set it at 65 instead of 62, explaining on France 2 at the end of October: “If we want to succeed , if we want to move forward, we have no other choice but to work more”.
No other solutions? “If we don’t carry out this pension reform, there are only two other ways of financing: increasing workers’ pension contributions, which means that in 2027 we will have to pay an average of 400 euros more per year in contributions. It’s less purchasing power! Another way of doing it is to lower pensions. It’s not bearable for our retirees”, specified the president during his intervention on the television channel.
A demonstration that does not seem to convince the French, according to a study by Odoxa for Abeille Assurances. 72% of those questioned think that the reform wanted by the government is “a bad reform” and 71% say they are “worried for themselves” with regard to their retirement. “Besides, if this reform is passed, 56% of French people assure that they will still leave before the age of 65, even if their retirement pension is less important”, adds the survey.
Emmanuel Macron is well aware of the unpopularity of his reform, but he is determined to go all the way. If the executive is still in a phase of consultation with the social partners, it has revealed some of its cards with regard to the exceptions to the future rule. Who will be able to leave before age 65, without losing part of their pension?
The government unveils its cards without saying too much. The Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt, in particular in charge of the pension reform, gave an interview to Les Echos in which he gives details on the minimum pension and the extension of the retirement age. On this last point, he explains that “when we shift the age of opening of rights, it is logical that the levels are shifted as much”.
Workers who have a long career could be affected by this shift, which the government therefore considers logical. As a reminder, these are French people who started working before the age of 20 and who, until now, could therefore take early retirement at age 60. If the reform is enacted, will they have to work until they are 62 or even 63 years old? The government has not yet decided. On the other hand, it seems to have already exempted certain French people from a decline in this starting age.
Some French people could already be excluded from this postponement of the starting age. As the Public Service website explains, disabled workers can take early retirement before age 62, at the earliest at age 55, under certain retirement insurance duration conditions.
Olivier Dussopt explained to Les Echos that the government did not want to “shift the age of removal of the discount which is 67 years old” nor “modify the age limits which allow full retirement for disabled insured persons or unfit at age 62 and for disabled workers at age 55”. Good news for the hundreds of thousands of French people who will be affected by the application of the new starting age.