Before bringing the accounts back to balance, the pension reform will start by making them worse. The revaluation of the small pensions provided for by the project will widen the Social Security deficit by 400 million euros, according to the latest version of the draft law, a copy of which AFP obtained on Wednesday.
Less than a month after the promulgation of a 2023 budget announcing a deficit of 7.1 billion euros, the government revised its forecast to 7.5 billion in the amending Social Security financing bill transmitted to the Board of state.
A difference of 400 million carried by the old-age branch and justified by the “first effects of all the measures reforming the pension system”, included in this text, in particular “the revaluation of the amount of the minimum pension for retirees with already liquidated their pension rights and for new retirees”.
A pension of at least 1,200 euros gross
The executive has indeed promised that a full career – i.e. 43 years of contribution – would give the right to a pension of at least 1,200 euros gross per month, or 85% of the net minimum wage when the measure comes into force on September 1. . The first draft sent to the Council of State last week reflected this commitment for future retirees, a quarter of whom (about 200,000 per year) are expected to gain from the change.
But Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne had said that the measure would also be extended to current retirees – “nearly 2 million” should benefit from it – in the bill which will be presented to the Council of Ministers on January 23.
Of which note, since the latest version confirms that “pensions from the general scheme for current retirees, which will have been liquidated before September 1, 2023, will be revalued” up to “100 euros per month for insured persons who have actually contributed to a career complete”, without being able to exceed the threshold of 85% of the Smic “by equity with the new retirees”.