LONG CAREERS 2023. The pension reform should force some people to work an extra year, even if they started earlier, at 16, 18 or 20. All changes to know.
[Mis à jour le 25 janvier 2023 à 08h13] The long career scheme is one of the pillars of the government’s pension reform project. Until then, it allows those who have contributed a certain number of quarters before age 16 and 20 to retire earlier. This point is not called into question by the executive. On the other hand, he plans to create a third level, for those who started working between the ages of 16 and 18. A measure “in line with the development of learning” declared the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt at the start of the week. People who started working before the age of 18 (4 or 5 quarters validated) will therefore be able to retire from the age of 60, provided they have contributed for 44 years.
Unfortunately, this reform should make losers. The decline in the legal retirement age (64 years in 2030) and the acceleration of the increase in the contribution period (one more quarter per year) could force this new category of the long career scheme to contribute 44 years, against 43 currently. To try to see more clearly, let’s take an example. 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 (a year of increase applies), 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.
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. Attention, to benefit from this early departure, it is mandatory to have validated at least 5 terms before the age of 20, 4 if you were born at the end of the year:
- 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.
Another potential novelty, to compensate for chopped careers, the periods validated under the old-age insurance for stay-at-home parents (AVPF), in particular due to parental leave, could be part of the long career system. The persons concerned could therefore validate up to four additional quarters in this situation. Periods which would also be counted in the calculation of the increased minimum pension. This should increase the amount of small pensions for some women, forced to put their career on hold to take care of their child(ren).
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.