Pension reform: what change on the side of the quarters?

Ready for pension reform? The subject, it is clear, Emmanuel Macron has been working for a long time. Already before his first election, the President of the Republic (then a candidate) mentioned the need to transform the system of inter-generational solidarity. At the time, he wanted to overturn the table and set up a whole new model, which he wanted to be universal and fairer. Since then, the former Minister of Economy of François Hollande has had the opportunity to change his mind. At the dawn of his second term, the new reform announced is no longer systemic: it is parametric. Concretely, this means that the executive is now considering changing the terms of the cessation of activity, rather than the nature of its operation.

This time it is a question of raising the legal retirement age to 65 years.

Very concretely, this means that a certain number of elements specific to the system in force today should remain the same. What about the quarters of contributions, for example, which were initially to be replaced by points in the previous model proposed by Emmanuel Macron? They constitute, let us remember, one of the main components of French retirement today…

The quarter of retirement allows, explains the French administration on the site of the public service, to identify the duration of pension insurance. In other words, it is thanks to him that it is possible to calculate the amount then paid to each insured. This duration of insurance is then broken down into two types of distinct quarters: those known as “contributed”, or worked, and those known as “assimilated”. The first are validated by working, the second are granted at the end of periods leading to work reductions (pregnancy, military service, illness, unemployment, etc.).

Will these systems evolve after the pension reform?

Emmanuel Macron has been very clear on this subject, he intends to gradually raise the legal retirement age to 65. This type of reform, parametric, encourages French men and women to work longer (provided they are still employed at that age, of course), at the risk otherwise of seeing their potential pension considerably reduced.

However, the very principle of the contribution quarter should not fundamentally change. They will always be validated after having contributed an amount corresponding to 150 times the hourly minimum wage (equivalent to January 1 of the current year). In 2022, indicates the online bank Boursorama on its information site, this represents 1,585 euros gross. Workers paid more can therefore validate several terms in less than three months.

If the validation remains based on the minimum amount of salary as well as the difference between the quarters contributed and assimilated (which do not allow to earn more, only to reach the full rate) remains… Does this mean that the reform does not change nothing to the quarters strictly speaking? Not necessarily. Explanations.

Pushing French men and women to work more means concretely increasing the number of quarters necessary to claim the full rate. The full rate allows you to put an end to your professional activity at the legal age (62 years old, at the time of writing this article) and to receive your entire pension.

Be careful, however, the number of quarters required varies from one generation to another. Here are the data to remember, recalls Boursorama.

Remember also that the assimilated quarters, that is to say obtained without working, do not allow to claim an inflation of the amount of the pension. They are only used to climb up to the amount of the full rate.