As every year, the Pension Monitoring Committee published a report on the pension scheme. More than usual, this document was eagerly awaited after the long battle over pension reform, which has animated the country since the beginning of the year. In the line of fire, these are many questions that have been debated with, in particular, that of the need to reform the system to guarantee its finances. While future figures remain unclear and the pension reform is due to come into effect from September 1, how has the Pension Monitoring Committee observed the current situation?
This Thursday, July 13, the Pension Monitoring Committee (CSR) and its procession of experts published its opinion on the pension scheme. Indeed, like every year, it must inform the government of its objectives in order to know whether the situation is changing favorably or not. In this context, the Pension Monitoring Committee has the possibility of issuing recommendations. A task that has become difficult this year, due to the future pension reform and its upcoming implementation.
At present, pension funds are preparing to meet the expectations of future retirees from September 1st. The Pensions Monitoring Committee therefore had to issue an opinion without knowing precisely the effects of the reform and especially its interest in restoring the balance of the system. In order to be as effective as possible, it has thus restricted itself to listing the shortcomings of the pension system, while proposing some avenues for improvement.
In order to carry out its report, the CSR thus had to take into account the very short time that set in between the final adoption of the reform and the publication of the Cor projections. Consequently, the CSR was obliged to adapt its diagnosis according to these imperatives by mentioning the possibility of a simplified opinion in the event that the rules of the different schemes were harmonised.
Still from this perspective, the CSR called for making the system more readable, but also more egalitarian with the creation of common rules for the revaluation of pensions, as well as the indexation of salaries charged to the account. It is, in fact, this data that makes it possible to set the future level of retirement.
In its report, the CSR also expresses reservations about a system driven in fits and starts with the systematic use of reforms when the system deteriorates. As reported by our colleagues from Capital, Didier Blanchet, president of the CSR, requested the implementation of “automatic adjustments”. It thus notifies the evolution of the departure age according to life expectancy, a decision which would be “relevant”.
The CSR thus hopes to see the birth of an overall strategy, as well as a global reflection on the three levers making it possible to curb the deficit of the scheme, namely the retirement age, the contribution rate and the level of pensions. It also calls for the full attention of the State on the question of the revaluation of the minimum contributory with the possible “coordination of management between the basic pension and the complementary”.
