“Can I request my retirement before the legal age?” Here is the question posed to us by Pascal, 60 years old, employee in an industrial company for 23 years. “My company has just been taken over and we are not immune to a social plan. I would like to know, if the opportunity presents itself to me, if I have any interest in accepting redundancy or a mutual agreement. I started working early and my career has not been easy. My working conditions are not optimal and the agreement with my superiors remains fragile. However, I concede that I have not yet looked into on my career statement. Just the idea of ​​looking into this administrative task makes me anxious. So I don’t know how many terms I’ve already completed, or if I can benefit from retirement If I have not yet acquired the full rate, is it better in my case to find a job, to liquidate my rights or to buy back terms? update on my career Will my retirement be enough for me to be able to end my life for good? ive? I have the impression that the laws are constantly changing, and to tell the truth, I don’t take the time to really inform myself, because everything related to pension rights seems very complicated to me.”

Episode 1 – Retirement: do the French really know their rights?

Episode 2: Do you have to reach the legal retirement age?

Episode 3 – How to correctly calculate the amount of your retirement and limit errors?

Episode 4: what changes for your pension rights in the coming months?

This resident of the Bordeaux region seems to be in the dark, as to his pre-retirement situation. Like the vast majority of French people, he is worried about his future condition, synonymous with loss of purchasing power, but also of social ties. As the 2022 barometer “Les Français l’Epargne et la Retraite” pointed out last February, “the lack of money is still the main source of concern for future retirees (81%), but the confinements seem to have exacerbated other fears such as a change of pace (43%, 8 points in 2 years) and loneliness (42%, 7 points in 2 years)”.

To provide answers to the sexagenarian, so that he can put in place an end-of-career strategy according to his needs and desires, we interviewed Dominique Prévert, partner of Optimaretraite, a consulting firm specializing in the field of verification, calculation and optimization of pension rights.

“Before 62, the current legal retirement age, it is not possible to claim your pension rights”, warns the expert from the outset.

“The decision is up to you, whatever your reasons: they can be family, related to your state of health, your projects or simply financial. If you have the means, nothing can prevent you from leaving your job. “If you have not reached the full rate, you will however suffer a permanent discount on your future pensions. It should nevertheless be kept in mind that before the age of 62, the pension funds will not pay you your pension”, note- he.

What about exemptions?

“By way of derogation, certain schemes may also allow you to liquidate your pension rights before the legal age”, recalls Dominique Prévert. Here they are.

“At age 60, it is possible to exercise your rights to early retirement for a long career. To do this, you must have started working at age 20, and complete at least 5 quarters before the end of the calendar year of your 20th birthday, but also to have met the number of quarters required to obtain the full rate, variable according to your year of birth”, details the pension adviser. “That is, 167 quarters for people born in 1960 and 168 quarters for those born in 1961, 1962, 1963.”

Here is, in detail, the number of terms you need according to your generation.

Depending on your year of birth, how many quarters do you need to have to retire? Not all French people retire at the same age. Not everyone contributes the same amount. The year of birth plays an essential role in this calculation.

Pascal, our senior wondering if he can leave early now, will therefore have to check on his career statement (RIS), available on the Info-retraite.fr site, if he fits well in this type of figure. In the event that he has already acquired 168 quarters, he will be able to benefit from a full pension, in the basic scheme. On the other hand, it will undergo an Agirc-Arrco reduction of 10% for three years. To avoid it, he will have to work one more year (leave at 61 instead of 60, for example, or take advantage of unemployment to generate new rights).

As the pension expert explains, it is also possible to leave before the legal age if you are disabled (disability rate of at least 50% and 80% before 2015). Those suffering from a permanent incapacity of at least 20% or between 10 and 20% in the case where they have been exposed for at least 17 years to occupational risk factors, can also retire earlier.

© Istock55, 62, 67 or 70: at what age can you retire?If the legal retirement age is set at 62, it is possible, depending on your situation and your career , to leave before, or after. Explanations.

If you are not one of the previous cases, you can also decide to stop working when an opportunity arises.

“A business leader, for example, or a practitioner who sells his company or his patients at age 60 at a very good price (not guaranteed over time), can decide to retire. However, he must take the time to weigh the pros and cons. Will the sum offered to him to buy back his business be enough to last two years, before the liquidation of his rights? We must think about provisioning part of the sum in this direction” , he recommends.

“As for older employees likely to be victims of a social plan like Pascal, they need to think about an action plan. Economic redundancy can represent an area of ​​opportunity for them. Indeed, if they are 59 years old and over, they will be able to benefit from unemployment for 1095 days. That is 3 years of compensation, bringing them up to the legal age. Then, if at 62 years old, they have still not reached the full rate, thanks to the unemployment agreement put in place to promote the employment of seniors, they can be compensated up to the age of the full automatic rate, which is set at 67. Given that in many cases, unemployment benefit is more advantageous than the pension that these seniors could receive, dismissal can be an opportunity. However, it is worth remembering that the financial conditions depend on career profiles (hashed or not) and the end-of-career situation”, notes Dominique Prevert.

“Once you reach 62, think about making a calculation: is it more interesting to keep the level of compensation from Pôle emploi or to liquidate your rights in order to obtain a financially larger retirement pension? account, the bonus of pension rights, when you are unemployed. You can indeed validate one quarter per period of 50 days within the limit of 4 per year. You also continue to generate ARCO ARGIRC points on the same basis. than when you were an employee. Because the number of points is not evaluated on the level of unemployment benefit, but on your reference salary for the last twelve months before your dismissal. The damage is therefore almost nil when you are unemployed at the end of their career”, assures the retired expert.

“The only drawback remains in the fact that the unemployment benefit is not included in the calculation of the average annual salary. It is therefore a simple loss of earnings and not a loss for someone who ends his career unemployed” , he adds.

Thus, if you consider that the pension gap between 62 and 67 is too great, you are not forced to liquidate your rights. In fact, there is no automatic liquidation upon retirement.

“Your end-of-career strategy must respond to the satisfaction of your own life balance, which is subjective and personal. What is your life project? What are your intentions? Are they in line with your current rights? Work two or three more years to obtain €50/month more on your future pension is it worth it?As a reminder, for each additional quarter acquired, you obtain a premium of 1.25% for life. thoughtful, because it is final and irreversible.In addition to the new rights, postponing your retirement also allows you to continue to enjoy the pension, mutuality, participation, or profit-sharing from your company… Either all the social benefits that you lose once your active life ends. So ask yourself all these questions before the liquidation of your rights and not after”, advises Dominique Prévert.

If you are not satisfied with your conditions, you can always return to a part-time job, as soon as you retire, or after.

To perfect your strategy, refer to episode 3 of our survey, in order to properly estimate your pension rights.

How to correctly calculate the amount of your retirement and limit errors? EXCLUSIVE SURVEY – Episode 3. The steps to assert your pension rights can seem complicated and each error or miscalculation can greatly harm you…