LONG CAREERS 2023. The Senate takes over the text of the pension reform this Thursday, March 2 and in particular a hot topic, the long career system. Women, trimesters, public service… We take stock.
[Mis à jour le 2 mars 2023 à 08h17] This Thursday, March 2, 2023, the text of the pension reform arrives in the Senate for a two-week review. If by tradition, senators do not practice obstruction, the battle will be no less tough for the government to validate its proposals concerning long careers. The Hauts-de-Seine senator Xavier Iacovelli tabled an amendment on February 28 in committee, taking up that of the government tabled in the National Assembly and allowing those who started working before the age of 21 to retire earlier, at 63 years old. A second amendment, still from the majority, allowing teachers to retire during the school year if all the conditions are met has also been tabled. Among other things, Xavier Iacovelli has finally tabled an amendment aimed at granting a bonus of quarters to volunteer firefighters. Mainly on the right, the senators have until March 26 to reach a consensus on the pension reform.
As a reminder, the long career scheme now allows 1 in 5 French people to benefit from early retirement for having started working early. With the pension reform, the government intends to go further, and strengthen this provision to allow as many people as possible to benefit from it. In this sense, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne has announced that she wants to create a new level at 18, allowing those born before this age to benefit from an early departure at 60. Also, a threshold at 21 years should be born to allow to leave at 63 years (one year earlier than the new legal age fixed at 64 years by the reform). To benefit from long careers it is necessary to have started working early (before the age of 20), to have contributed 5 quarters before that age and to have validated 43 annuities and 172 quarters. Prerogatives which also apply to the new thresholds provided for by the reform. The creation of the threshold at 21 should allow 300,000 additional people to retire earlier. The pension reform should also allow women who have been on parental leave to put it forward to benefit from the long career scheme. Parental leave will make it possible to validate four terms and will benefit more than 3,000 women who will retire earlier.
Through this pension reform, the government promises a new device “adapted, so that no person who started working early is forced to work over 44 years”. But the system of long careers appears to be the main point of contention between the majority and the opposition. So much so that the Prime Minister has already let go of the ballast, by agreeing to grant an early departure at 63, for those who started working before 21 years old. The maximum threshold was until then at 20 years. A concession like an outstretched hand to the Republican deputies, who appear to be the only alliance solution for the majority, with a view to adopting the text without forcing it through with the help of a possible 49.3. This gesture on the part of the number 2 of the government could cost between 600 million and 1 billion euros per year.
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 ans : if you started working at 14 ans
- 59 ans : if you started working at 15 ans
- 60 ans : if you started working at 16 ans
- 61 ans : if you started working at 17 ans
- 62 ans : if you started working between 18 and 20 years old
- 63 ans : if you started working before 21 ans
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, four years earlier. As mentioned above, the earlier you started working, the earlier you can retire. On the other hand, women could be among the losers. According to a government impact study, a woman will have to work an average of 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.
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.