It is forbidden in France to take several spouses. However, this does not mean that the survivor’s pension, which is paid under conditions to the surviving spouse after the death of the life partner, is exclusive. It is quite possible that the latter fell in love and married more than once. In which case, all of his partners are theoretically able to claim part of his retirement pension after his death.
As a reminder, the survivor’s pension “corresponds to part of the pension from which the deceased insured person (employee or civil servant) benefited or could have benefited”, writes the French administration on the public service website. It is not necessarily paid only to former surviving spouses: in some cases, orphans can also benefit from it. In most cases, continues La Retraite en Clair, you must however be at least 55 years old to receive it and not exceed strict resource ceilings (21,985.60 euros per year for a single person; 35 176.96 euros for a couple, if a new union is tolerated).
That being said, the multiplication of beneficiaries can have consequences that are difficult to monitor, Capital points out. Explanations.
In fact, it is sometimes possible to recover the part of the reversion which normally went to another deceased beneficiary. In practice, this depends on the regime concerned. If this is paid by the basic Social Security scheme – which concerns employees, the self-employed, farmers or the liberal professions – then it is possible. This is also true for certain supplementary schemes (craftsmen, business leaders, in particular). Unfortunately for them, the employees, who contribute to Agirc-Arrco, cannot claim it. The share is lost, says Capital.
