They are generally more exposed to inflation than others. And for good reason ! After the cessation of activity, it can be very complex to adapt your income to the rise in prices. It is not possible to demand the slightest increase from one’s (former) employer and older people find it more difficult to get hired, which makes combining employment and retirement difficult to implement. Especially since, due to threshold effects, this can sometimes lead to unpleasant tax increases, as Planet explained. From then on, the executive made the protection of retirees a real priority, as the economist Philippe Crevel pointed out in our columns. Pensions were inflated by 1.1% in January 2022, then again by 4% from July 1 of the same year.
Not enough to cover inflation, therefore, but the device presents a robust face, estimates the director of the Cercle de l’Epargne. Not without remembering, of course, that it is not necessarily as advantageous for executives as it can be for employees. This can be explained quite simply: the supplementary pension, which was not then revalued, accounts for around 60% of the final amount of their pension. Very concretely, this means that only 40% of what they receive has been increased to take inflation into account. But things could change…
Agirc-Arrco, in charge of supplementary pensions for private sector workers, announced that a revaluation of pensions was planned for November 1, 2022. Its exact amount is not yet known, but it should oscillate between 4.9 % and 5.2%… which would therefore be more generous than the State could have been. Several signs also suggest that the increase in pensions will be substantial. Summary.
One of the most obvious signs is none other than the good economic health of Agirc-Arrco. The scheme is more than in the green in 2022, since it should a priori generate a surplus of 3.7 billion euros, according to the latest internal estimates, indicates Sud-Ouest. A relatively usual situation, since the pension fund already had a surplus balance in 2021. At the time, the surplus was then estimated at 2.6 billion euros.
That being said, it is important to remember that this surplus will probably not be set aside; or at least not in full. A substantial part of the sums recovered will be reinjected into the payment of pensions. A jump in spending of 4 billion euros is expected.
Some, including and especially at Agirc-Arrco, are now campaigning for a greater increase in retirement pensions. However, the regime has put in place a series of strict rules to which it normally does not derogate. Thus, the most important of these is none other than the need to have funds large enough to represent six months of financial reserves over a fifteen-year horizon, reports TF1.
To avoid any problem at this level, the question will then be addressed during a “joint committee”, scheduled before the board of directors on Tuesday, October 6, 2020.
