This is called the widows’ share. The survivor’s pension is paid to the surviving spouse of a couple and corresponds to part of the pension that the deceased received before his death or from which he should have benefited. Be careful, it is not paid to everyone, because several conditions – in particular related to age and resources – must be met.
The first, and not the least, concerns the couple itself since it is imperative to have been married to their spouse in order to be able to receive the survivor’s pension. A PACS and a life spent in cohabitation therefore do not give the right to a survivor’s pension. The duration of the marriage, on the other hand, does not matter and you can receive this sum while being in a relationship again.
To qualify for a survivor’s pension, you must be at least 55 years old, but if your spouse died before 2009, you can apply from the age of 51. Regardless of your age, here are the financial conditions to be met in 2023:
Among the resources taken into account in the calculation are earned income, allowances received, replacement income, real estate you own or those you have donated for less than five years. Your investments, passbooks and remunerated accounts are also valued in this calculation, as are benefits in kind.
In addition to these numerous rules, there is another, less well-known one: widows or widowers are not the only people who can benefit from a survivor’s pension. In the public service and for certain supplementary pension funds, it is possible to benefit from the survivor’s pension when you are an orphan. Until now, the general pension scheme did not offer this option… But the rules will soon change.
Orphans whose parents should have benefited from a pension from the general scheme cannot receive the survivor’s pension. A rule that the pension reform did not plan to change, until the addition of a new device by the Senate. As Capital explains, “orphans (of father and mother) will be able to receive a survivor’s pension under the basic pension”.
For the time being, we do not know what the conditions for granting this new survivor’s pension will be. According to the text of the law, the amount will have to be fixed by a decree and will be distributed “in equal shares between the orphans who have requested to benefit from the benefit”. Until what age could it be paid?
As is the case for widows or widowers of the deceased, the survivor’s pension for orphans under the general scheme will also be subject to age conditions. In the civil service, a child can receive 10% of the pension of his civil servant parent until his 21st birthday. Beyond that, he will not touch anything, unless he is disabled.
As for the supplementary schemes, Agirc-Arrco pays 50% of the points acquired by the parent who has contributed to orphans under 21 or 25 if they are a student, unemployed or apprentice. Again, there is no age limit for children with disabilities.
