Around one million pensioners, who were still waiting for their “small pension” to be revalued since the pension reform, will see it increased “at the latest” in October, with a “catch-up” of the last twelve months, according to their age, the insurance company said on Friday.
The contested pension reform raised the value of the “minimum contributory” (Mico), a system of support for small pensions, to a minimum of 85% of the net minimum wage, for an employee who has completed a full career on the minimum wage. The government introduced this measure to strengthen the social aspect of a reform that raises the legal retirement age to 64, compared to the previous 62 years.
Around 600,000 pensioners from the general scheme and 85,000 former agricultural employees had already seen their pensions increased during a first wave of increases, in the autumn of 2023, when the reform came into force, recalls the National Old Age Insurance Fund (Cnav) and the Agrarian Social Mutuality (MSA).
But “about a million” other retirees from the general system and 250,000 former farm workers, whose files were often more complex to recalculate, requiring some to go back in their careers and find certain documents, had to wait another year.
Between 50 and 60 euros gross per month
All of them will be revalued “at the latest” during the payment at the beginning of October, with “a recovery” corresponding to the increase of the last twelve months. In general terms, this represents “an average of between 50 and 60 gross euros per month,” says the Cnav, which will specify the exact figures and amounts next week.
The increase in small pensions was the subject of fierce quantitative battles during the reform, both as regards its scope and its amount, as the government was accused of having exaggerated the positive effect of the measure. According to estimates by Drees, the statistical service of the social ministries, the boost will also benefit 185,000 new retirees in 2024 (out of a total of around 750,000), which represents an average increase of around 30 euros per month.
For Drees, the “revalorization of small pensions” effect of the pension reform will continue in the years and decades to come, since the “Mico” is now indexed to the minimum wage and not to inflation. Including the increase, the pensions in question (including the basic and complementary pension, assigned by one or more schemes) cannot exceed 1,352.23 euros per month, specifies the Cnav.
Source: BFM TV
