A first government concession. Nodding to the Republicans, Elisabeth Borne recently announced that people who started working between the ages of 20 and 21 could join the “long career” system and retire at 63, not 64. Until then, by forcing them to to work until the age of 64, the government reform ran the risk of forcing these employees to contribute for 44 years for a full pension, that is, one more year.
Be careful though: all those who worked before the age of 21 will not be affected. To be integrated into the “long career” regime, and therefore claim early retirement at age 63, you must have contributed at least five quarters before the end of the year of your 21st birthday if you were born between January and September, and at minus four quarters if you were born between October and December. If at age 63 you will have also contributed the necessary 43 years, then you can retire without waiting for the age of majority.
An amendment promoted by the deputies of LR, and in particular defended by Aurélien Pradié, however, proposes allowing anyone who has contributed at least a quarter before reaching the age of 21 to retire once they have validated their 43 years of contribution . An unthinkable measure for the Government, which has already closed the door to its adoption. This would cost “10,000 million euros a year,” Labor Minister Olivier Dussopt responded on Monday morning, the european 1.
“Would that be normal?”
On the part of the Government, it is estimated that such relaxation of the criteria would open the “long career” system to all those who have only done a summer job. Because the validation of a quarter of the activity depends on the amounts on which contributions have been made, and not on the actual duration of the work: to validate a quarter of the pension insurance, you must have received a salary subject to a contribution equivalent to at least 150 hours paid at the minimum wage.
Specifically: if a student works 35 weekly hours paid with minimum wage, for a full month, they can validate a term. “If I do a summer job for four or five weeks, would that be normal? [..] that I can go at 63? The answer is no,” said Aurore Bergé, president of the Renaissance group in the National Assembly, on France information. It is necessary to distinguish “the one who has always worked” from “the one who has worked more sporadically”, estimated the deputy for Yvelines.
A person who only had summer jobs before the age of 21 will not be able to claim early retirement at age 63, they will have to have started their true professional career to benefit from it, but the quarters validated thanks to these summer jobs will be into account for the calculation of the 43 years of contribution. Although the debate on the reform began this Monday afternoon in the National Assembly for two weeks, the issue should soon be back on the table.
Source: BFM TV
