It is an annual “panorama” which concludes the long – and turbulent – sequence of pension reform, and which also confirms the growing weight of retirees in France. With 722,000 new “direct right” retirees in 2021, the various schemes totaled almost 17 million pensioners (16,997,000), i.e. 90,000 more in one year, according to a study published this Friday, June 16 by the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (Drees).
By adding survivors, most often paid to widows, just over 18 million people received a retirement pension at the end of 2021.
In addition, 4.4 million people benefited from a secondary retirement pension – also called “reversion pension”. “For a million of these beneficiaries, this survivor’s pension is their only retirement pension”, notes the DREES. “Women, more often widows, represent 88% of beneficiaries of a derived right pension”, specifies the statistical service of the social ministries.
The decrease in purchasing power
The average “direct right” amount was 1,470 euros gross, or 1,366 euros net, with a difference of 38% between men (1,697 euros) and women (1,052 euros).
Despite a stronger increase than before (+1.8% net), the purchasing power of pensioners decreased due to an “acceleration in prices (+2.8%) not affecting the revaluation of pensions than in 2022”, underlines the Drees. Reversions included, the pension paid rose to 1,612 euros gross – or 1,499 euros net – with a gap reduced to 24% between men (1,719 euros) and women (1,305 euros).
Moreover, the effective retirement age has continued to increase, reaching an average of 62 years and 7 months, with a difference of 10 months between men (62 years and 2 months) and women (63 years). In continuous rise for ten years, it exceeds for several years the legal age, currently set at 62 years and which will be gradually raised to 64 years by 2030.
A continuously increasing effective retirement age
This age has been steadily increasing since 2010 (+2 years and 1 month) mainly following the raising of the age limits resulting from the 2010 reform, notes the Drees.
“However, the cyclical retirement age has increased more slowly since 2016, explains the statistical service of the social ministries. Indeed, the raising of the legal age for canceling the discount, which begins to increase from of this date, has a more moderate effect than that of the legal minimum age of opening of rights, which finished producing its effects in 2018.”
At the end of 2021, notes the Drees, 27% of people aged 61 residing in France are already retired, while 15% of those aged 65 are not yet retired. As the statistics service reminds us, the question of pensions is the first item of social protection expenditure with 338 billion euros in pensions paid in 2021, or 13.5% of GDP.