LONG CAREERS 2023. The new pension reform could force those who started working early to contribute longer than others. Explanations.
[Mis à jour le 17 janvier 2022 à 08h09] Like several proposals of the pension reform project issued by the government, the long career system is subject to debate. Indeed, the executive is considering creating a new threshold for people who started working at 18 years old. De facto, the persons concerned could leave 4 years before the legal retirement age, ie from the age of 60 if they started at 18 and contributed for 44 years (the new maximum duration if the reform were to come into force). Problem, with this reform, some will have to contribute one year more than the others. Today, if you were born in 1973 and you started working at the age of 17, you can then leave at the age of 60 at the full rate, having validated 43 annuities. But with the reform and the new rule of 44 annuities, the departure will be delayed to 61 years old at full rate, still having started his career at 17 years old. That’s a year older than today.
Also, be aware that women who have benefited from parental leave will be able to report it, and take advantage of the long career system. In other words, they will be able to validate up to four quarters in this situation. Enough to allow more than 3,000 women to leave earlier. With the pension reform and the lowering of the legal retirement age to 64, the government therefore wishes to strengthen and consolidate the system of long careers, allowing one in five French people to leave early. Today, it’s 150,000 people per year, or nearly 20% of retirements.
Through this pension reform, the government promises a reform “adapted, so that no one who started working early is forced to work over 44 years”. Here is the new retirement age, based on your starting age. Please note, to benefit from this early departure, it is mandatory to have validated at least 5 terms before the age of 20:
- 58 years old : if you started working at 14 years old
- 59 years old : if you started working at 15 years old
- 60 years : if you started working at 16 years old
- 61 years old : if you started working at 17 years
- 62 years old : if you started working between 18 and 20 years old
To benefit from early retirement for a long career, you must have started working before 20 years. Two other conditions prevail. First, your pension insurance period must include, all compulsory basic schemes combined, a minimum number of quarters contributed. Also, you must have acquired a minimum number of quarters of retirement insurance at the start of your career. These 2 conditions for the duration of pension insurance vary according to your year of birth, the age from which you started working and the age from which you plan to take early retirement.
The 2023 pension reform slightly modified the system for long careers by introducing a new threshold, set at 18 years. From now on, if you started working before the age of 18, it will be possible to retire at age 60, i.e. four years earlier (if you contributed at least 44). As mentioned above, the earlier you started working, the earlier you can retire.
The national pension fund for local authority employees (CNRACL) is the pension fund for the basic scheme of local government and hospital employees. It is a public administrative institution of the State, it is managed by the Pensions and Solidarity Department of Caisse des Dépôts. Note that the conditions for obtaining a “long career” pension are exactly the same as for other civil servants.