Posted 15 Feb. 2023 at 12:03Updated Feb 16. 2023 at 8:39
Put in difficulty at the Assembly on the pension reform, the government made this Wednesday an update on the question of small pensions. With the reform, 250,000 current retirees will see their pension “pass the milestone” of 85% of the minimum wage, promised the Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, on France Inter.
The government bill plans to increase the “contributory minimum” to 85% of the minimum wage for people who have completed a full career at the minimum wage and full time. Enough to bring small pensions to a level close to 1,200 euros per month gross. Concretely, these pensions must benefit from a boost, calculated in proportion to the time worked and which can go up to 100 euros.
From 70 to 100 euros more per month
This promise is supposed to better accept a pension reform very unpopular and fought by the unions. In recent days, the oppositions have however criticized the executive for misleading the French on the extent of this gesture in favor of the most modest. According to them, very few retirees would see their pension increase to 1,200 euros, people who have had choppy careers and part-time work cannot reach this threshold.
Questioned on numerous occasions, in the media or during debates in the Assembly, the executive has therefore specified its copy on this complex device. Until today, he had explained that 1.8 million current pensioners would see their small pension increased. Of this total, 900,000 will see their pensions increase by 70 to 100 euros per month, said Olivier Dussopt.
“You even have 125,000 which will go up to the maximum of 100 euros in revaluation. This may not seem like much, but in reality it’s huge, it means that we have a total of 250,000 additional retirees in our country who will cross the threshold of 85% of the minimum wage among current retirees. »
The reform also plans to improve the small pensions of future retirees. The executive had already indicated that 200,000 people should benefit from it each year out of 800,000 who retire. In total, “40,000 more people each year will pass the milestone of 85% of the minimum wage thanks to this reform alone,” said Olivier Dussopt, saying he had obtained this figure the night before. And around 67,000 (a “big third” of 200,000) should benefit from a revaluation of more than 70 euros per month.
Contributory system
“Those who will remain below 85% of the minimum wage are those who have incomplete careers,” explained the minister. He called not to confuse the solidarity allowance for the elderly (Aspa) or minimum old age, financed by national solidarity and designed to support retirees with very few resources, with the minimum pension which is contributory and therefore depends on the contributions paid.
And to mention the case of a cashier who worked part-time. “I don’t tell someone who has worked all his life for 700 euros that his retirement will be higher than his salary. If we are in this logic, we are no longer talking regarding retirement, we are talking regarding minimum old age, it is no longer a retirement, it is a social minimum that we have raised to 960 euros, ”insisted Olivier Dussopt.
The question of the contributory minimum has been at the heart of political negotiations since the beginning of the debates on pension reform. Initially planned for future retirees, who will work more with the postponement of the legal age, the revaluation of small pensions (700 million euros by 2030) has been extended to the “stock” of retirees (at a cost additional 1.1 billion euros) under pressure from elected representatives of the majority and LR, key to the adoption of the reform without recourse to article 49.3 of the Constitution.
However, its implementation promises to be complicated because it involves reconstituting careers. The increase in pensions should also have effects on other social benefits.