PENSION REFORM. The long-awaited 2023 pension reform project will be presented this Tuesday, January 10, in the afternoon, by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne. The new legal age of departure will be scrutinized closely.
[Mis à jour le 10 janvier 2022 à 08h09] The end is near. It is undoubtedly the most anticipated reform, and the most contested of Emmanuel Macron’s second five-year term: the pension reform will be presented this Tuesday, January 10 by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, during an official press conference. At the heart of the debate, the legal retirement age. After many twists and turns, it should be fixed to 64 years old, not 65 years old. For this, the government plans to rely on the Touraine reform voted in 2014. In other words, extending the contribution period byone trimester every three years to reach 43 years (172 quarters) for people born in 1973 or later.
The executive should have the text adopted by an amending Social Security financing bill (PLFRSS), rather than by a dedicated bill. In fact, this famous 49.3 can only be used once per parliamentary session for ordinary laws. However, there is no limit for budgetary texts. Enough to allow him to have the text adopted by triggering article 49.3, but retaining the possibility of using it again, on another thorny issue, until the end of the parliamentary session. Remember that other points are subject to lively debate, such as long careers, special diets or new criteria for hardship at work.
The main part of this pension reform should go through a bill for the amending financing of Social Security (PLFRSS). This could allow the government, if necessary, to resort to 49.3. In other words, by adoption without a vote. The latter is now considering the presentation of a second bill to have other measures adopted, such as potential salary insurance for seniors who wish to continue their careers, or the creation of the famous index of seniors. The executive has put forward several main leads before the end of the year holidays, here they are:
- Creation of a minimum pension at 85% of minimum wage : nearly 1,200 euros
- New device on long careers (early departure)
- New device on the arduousness (extension of C2P)
- Towards a removal of the taking into account of summer jobs
- Towards an abolition of certain special diets (RATP, IEG)
- Creating a “index of seniors“in the interests of professional equality
- The age ofcancellation of the next to stay at 67 years old
- Towards the establishment of a salary insurance (for employees over 55 who wish to continue working, and who find a less well-paid job than the previous one)
The executive plans to increase the minimum working time by 4 months per year. In other words, the first generation concerned will be the 1961 generation, and more particularly seniors born between July 1 and December 1. From the 1970 generation, the legal retirement age will automatically be set at 65 if this reform comes into force. Are you concerned? Here is the new legal starting age, based on your year of birth:
- Generation 1961 : 62 years and 4 months, in 2023
- Generation 1962 : 62 years and 8 months, in 2024
- Generation 1963 : 63 years old, in 2025
- Generation 1964 : 63 years and 4 months, in 2026
- Generation 1965 : 63 years and 8 months, in 2027
- Generation 1966 : 64 years old, in 2028
- Generation 1967 : 64 years and 4 months, in 2029
- Generation 1968 : 64 years and 8 months, in 2030
- Generation 1969 : 65 years old, in 2030
The pension reform should not structurally modify the current system. A mechanism for long careers will be retained, assured Emmanuel Macron on October 26 on the set of France 2. “We have to negotiate it. We must keep a mechanism where, of course, they will be asked to work a little longer, but define the right threshold”, he defended.
During an interview with Le Parisien, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne mentioned this problem of long careers. For those who started working early, the system could, in the future, allow them to leave two or four years before the legal retirement age. “The principle will be maintained and even relaxed for those who really started working very early,” she added.
For more than three years, the abolition of special diets has been in the government’s small papers. Faced with the rumble of contributors to special plans, the latter has reviewed its copy. It plans to prohibit access to special schemes for new hires in the trades concerned. In other words, the old ones will keep their special regime, but the new ones will no longer have access to it. The limit is as follows: to remain attached to his special scheme, the employee must be less than 17 years from retirement, in 2020. This is the famous “grandfather clause“.
With this reform, insured persons linked to a special scheme will retain their benefits, for the vast majority if they were born before January 1, 1975. For employees of the RATP, SNCF, Bank of France, IEG and the state workersbefore the January 1, 1980. For the miners and drillersbefore the January 1, 1982. The Paris Opera dancersand the Dockers, they will not be impacted. This special diet should not move one iota.
Hardship at work is one of the government’s priorities in this 2023 pension reform. In this logic, it wishes to broaden the scope of action of the C2P (prevention professional account). This system makes it possible to accumulate points so as to retire earlier, according to six hardship criteria: night work, work in successive alternating shifts, repetitive work, activities in a hyperbaric environment (under water, nuclear reactor containment), extreme temperatures or even noise.
The objective is therefore to broaden these risks using three additional items: the carrying heavy loadsthem mechanical vibration and the painful postures.