LONG CAREERS 2023. The pension reform project plans to expand the long career system. Year of birth, new conditions, losers from the reform… We take stock.
[Mis à jour le 2 février 2023 à 08h09] With the pension reform, the government wants to allow people born between 16 and 18 to retire at 60, four years before the new legal age (64 against 62 currently). Today, only two levels exist, before 16 years and before 20 years. This novelty would make it possible to broaden the system of long careers and to allow everyone to benefit from it. To benefit from it, it will be essential to have contributed five quarters before turning 18, and four if you were born at the end of the year. Regarding the contribution period, it will not change, still at 43, but with 172 quarters. This text of the pension reform should however make some losers. And especially women.
Let’s take the example of Carla, born in 1973 and having started working at the age of 17. Currently, she can leave at age 60 at full rate, if she has validated 43 annuities. With the pension reform, she will have to contribute 44 annuities (one year of increase), for a departure at 61, and no longer 60. Also, she will have to contribute 176 quarters, and no longer 172. Women could also be among the losers. According to a government impact study, a woman will have to work on average 7 months longer with the reform, compared to 5 additional months for men. And up to 9 months longer for a woman born in 1972, four months longer than a man. The pension reform will now be presented in the hemicycle on February 6, 2023 for two weeks of debate. The discussions, they must end no later than March 26, according to the temporal rules defined by a bill for the amending financing of Social Security (PLFRSS).
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 level, 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 choppy 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.