Pensioners are still in the crosshairs, this explosive economy is part of the government’s plans

2024-10-10 18:00:00

Pensioners are still in the crosshairs, this explosive economy is part of the government’s plans” width=”1500″ height=”1000″/>

The finance bill that will be presented in committee to the National Assembly this Thursday 11 October contains a delicate point for pensioners’ finances.

This is a path that will be talked about a lot during the presentation of the 2025 budget, through the financial bill presented to Bercy by the Ministry of Economy and Finance and that of the Budget. Although the text proposed by the government will now have to be presented to Parliament, it provides some savings opportunities to reduce state spending.

One of these tracks had already “leaked” in recent days and had sparked numerous reactions. Despite everything, it figures in the government’s final project, which Linternaute.com I was able to consult this Thursday 10 October. It is simply a matter of tapping pensioners’ wallets through their old-age pensions.

It is expected that every year, starting from 1 January, the basic pensions paid by Carsat will increase. The mechanism is rather simple: the increase corresponds to the level of inflation recorded the previous year. Starting from 1 January 2025 it was therefore possible to predict an increase corresponding to inflation for 2024. This is now less than 2%, around 1.6-1.8%. Enough to obtain an “increase” of around 13-15 euros for a basic pension of 800 euros per month. This is what is often called “indexing pensions to inflation”. This process allows the purchasing power of pensioners to be preserved year after year.

This time, the government plans to delay this alignment by 6 months. The amount of old-age pensions will therefore be in a certain sense “frozen” during the first half of 2025. This delay would lead to a saving of 4 billion euros for the State. Revised in July, pensions would not benefit from retroactive effect. Revealed in recent days, without being confirmed by Michel Barnier in his general political speech on 4 October, this path had already been debated and even fiercely opposed by several political leaders, including those of the National Rally, whose vote could have a strong influence in Palazzo Borbone.

Marine Le Pen talked about it on her X account on October 5. “Postponing the indexation of pensions means depriving our elderly of billions of euros of purchasing power. I will reject this measure, all the more petty as it was leaked the day after Michel Barnier’s speech, who was silent on this maneuver already used by François Hollande and Trump. Emmanuel Macron”, thundered the leader of the RN. His exit sparked a response from the Prime Minister, who said he was “open to other ideas to find other means”, “in the next parliamentary discussion”. A promise kept because, a week later, this road appears in the text of the government which will present its bill to the finance commission of the National Assembly on Thursday 11 October. It promises to be one of the most commented points of the project…