The ax fell, and the horizon receded. The pension reform bill, unveiled on Tuesday January 10 by the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, provides in particular for the gradual postponement of the legal retirement age from 1is September: it will be set at 63 years and three months in 2027, then at 64 years in 2030, instead of 62 years currently.
This measure will be coupled with an acceleration of the extension of the contribution period provided for by the Touraine law of 2014. Thus, it will be necessary to have worked forty-three years from the generation born in 1965, and no longer in 1973, to be eligible. to a full pension.
The executive, who was considering a postponement to 65 for his flagship reform, therefore put water in his wine. But for the majority of the approximately 130 fifties who answered the call for testimonies of the Monde, it’s the cold shower. The life after that they were beginning to prepare – the house by the sea far from Paris, the afternoons with the grandchildren, the model workshop, the book club, the travel plans… – will have to wait a little longer.
“In concrete terms, for me, that means nine months of additional work, so an extra school year”sums up Catherine Lenoir, 60, teacher in a professional high school in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis), who says she is “disgusted” et “completely shaken”. Professor in environmental health prevention, she had to stop at 62 years old. It will finally be at 63 years old. “Morally, learning that two years from retirement is hard”, she sighs. Like all those interviewed, Catherine Lenoir finds “unfair” the fact of “changing the rules of the race a few kilometers from the finish line”.
“Bamboo Kick”
Others mention “a violent blow of bamboo”, “an unbearable decision”or the crossing of“a red line” who puts them “a roe”. For many, the pill is so hard to swallow because it comes with the feeling of being robbed of a precious year or two of still being fit enough to enjoy life.
“Certainly, life expectancy is increasing. But contrary to what the government claims, we do not live longer in better health. Raise the retirement age, if it’s to go from work to nursing home, it’s no “, asserts Caroline Alarcon, 58, a bank employee in Ile-de-France. Since 1950, the French have actually gained about fifteen years of life expectancy (a progression that hides gender inequalities and between socio-professional categories). But living longer does not necessarily mean living better: 23% of French people suffered from a physical limitation during their first year of retirement in 2018, according to the Ministry of Health. The most affected are the workers: 34% are constrained in the activities of daily life from their first day of retirement.
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