Some may no longer receive any survivor’s pension. This is in any case what advanced, in April 2019, the newspaper L’Opinion. The press title then alerted to the fate of these French women and men who, once Emmanuel Macron’s reform had passed, would be deprived of this often essential source of income.
Previously, recalls L’Express, the rumor of an outright abolition of this device circulated, before being denied. This does not mean that the executive had not already planned to revise it.
More than a month after the start of the strike against the pension reform, the project was becoming clearer, reports Capital, however. Indeed, article 46 of the text sets out the new functioning, adapted to the universal scheme, of survivorship.
With the key word: harmonizing the (many) rules in force. No more different rates for each speed and torque. It will be uniform for all the persons concerned. Some, moreover summarizes the monthly, could even gain rights while others, alas, should lose some.
First, the new survivor’s pension will not be a priori open to couples who could not already claim it under the current system. Pacsés and cohabitants will still not be able to benefit from the pension of their late partner.
Despite certain recommendations put down on paper by Jean-Paul Delevoye, who finally had to present his resignation to the President of the Republic, the government decided to award the reversion “subject to the duration of marriage and non- remarriage after death so that it is aimed at people suffering a loss of standard of living”. Thus, it will be necessary to have been married for at least two years or to have had at least one child during the marriage, according to My New Life.
Currently, this is how the public service operates. Without children from the couple, the widow or widower must be able to justify at least 4 years of marriage to be able to claim reversion. If the executive decides to base itself on this model, it would also mean closing its rights in the event of remarriage. Blended families will therefore not be able to receive this type of pension.
However, for the time being, the text does not provide any details concerning divorced couples. It is just specified, note Capital, that an ordinance will specify in the long term the methods relating to the guarantee of rights for the separated couples.
The text goes back to the amount of the survivor’s pension that widows and widowers likely to request will receive. In the universal scheme, the rate will no longer apply to the retirement that the deceased received but to the sum of the pensions that the couple received. The new law also guarantees a standard of living equal to 70% of the income available to the couple before death. Against 54% of the basic pension and 60% of the supplementary pension today. It will be without means test or ceiling.
Finally, the government has also decided to reconsider the age from which it was possible to liquidate one’s survivor’s rights. Currently, it is possible to request it from the age of 55, except in a few specific situations: certain liberal professions must wait until they are 60 to 65 to claim it.
Jean-Paul Delevoye planned to cut the pear in half and proposed the age of 62 for all situations. This is not what the government finally retained, which opted to maintain the age of 55, which will be extended to all professions. Which, alerts the specialized newspaper, could prove to be a trap.
“It will be necessary to ensure that at 55 there will be no reduction if you request reversion as was the case at one time at Agirc, supplementary retirement for executives and that you should not wait for ‘to be of the age of equilibrium to receive it at the full rate,’ explains for Capital Dominique Prévert of the cabinet Optimaretraite.
Indeed, it will not be necessary to wait to be able to liquidate one’s own pension rights to benefit from it. In addition, you will be able to benefit from the rights of your deceased spouse even if he had not yet liquidated his.
