Pension reform: impatient, skeptical or fatalistic, seniors are "in the dark"

An IT manager, but "disabled" for two years following a workplace accident, the man in his sixties wonders: is he still contributing? What will his pension amount be? Does the possible suspension of the 2023 reform, currently being debated in parliament as part of the examination of the Social Security budget, "change anything"?

"A lot of conflicting information is circulating on social media, so I prefer to come here," he told AFP.

With her glasses trained on his pension statement, the advisor reassures him. At 63, he is already entitled to retire with a full pension. The 2023 reform, which gradually raises the retirement age to 64 and increases the required contribution period, has already been applied to him.

Only people born between 1964 and 1968 could gain a quarter in the event of a suspension.

In the adjoining booths of this Parisian agency, other seniors listen intently. Agirc-Arrco receives nearly 500.000 people free of charge each year throughout France.

"I don't understand any of it."

Among the future retirees interviewed by AFP, many came to have complex systems explained to them, such as "phased retirement," "buying back pension credits," or to check the status of their files. Political events "are not the reason" for their visit, but can spark "curiosity," says the agency's director, Marine Grossi.

Alix, 60, an insurance executive who prefers not to give her last name, could "gain six months" in the event of a suspension (this is the case for some people born in the first quarter of 1965). But she says she is "unemotional" and "realistic": "there are no longer enough workers to pay for pensions."

Conversely, Ney, 59, a self-employed "therapist", "is waiting for, hoping for this suspension", especially for "those who have a difficult job".

"I'd like to leave as soon as possible," sighs Omer Coyan, 60, a disabled head waiter. "I don't understand the reform at all; it's always changing," he complains. He ultimately leaves his meeting "relieved," planning an early retirement due to illness.

Valérie, 62, a sales director "fired at 55," believes she has been "penalized three times" by recent reforms: "the Macron scale (capping of compensation for dismissal), the reduction of the duration of unemployment compensation, and my retirement which is slipping away," she explains.

Recipient of the specific solidarity allowance (580 euros per month),

She will have to wait until she is 67 to retire without a reduction in her pension. In France

Work: "The rooms are full of people like me, in a complete emptiness."

she blurts out.

- Chopped-up careers -

600 km away, at the Agirc-Arrco agency in Le Bouscat, in the Bordeaux suburbs,

Nathalie Lelong, 59, is starting to "worry". She works at the laundry.

from the University Hospital of Bordeaux, she calculates that she does not yet have all her quarters of

contribution, after periods of temporary work, subsidized contracts and unemployment.

For her, retirement is a "super vague subject".

Claude René-Corail, 62, a distribution worker who came with

numerous documents in a plastic bag, confides that the various "reversals"

The reform "worried" him. Hoping to leave at the beginning of 2026, he doesn't know

if he has enough quarters. "I thought retirement was automatic.

"No, there are steps to take!" he exclaimed.

Franz Layan, a 58-year-old insurance employee, is affected by a

Possible suspension. "I knew what to expect, but I'm not so sure anymore,"

"There," smiled the elegant man in his fifties, deeming it "absurd" to "go back on this

reform two years later."

The question of suspension is "raised every time," observes the

agency manager, Sophie Tartarin.

In this wine-growing region, many seasonal workers have interrupted careers.

They will have to wait until they are 67 to retire with a full pension. "They arrive with their lives

in a bag", piles of "documents to sift through", but "don't know" what

"We expect it," she summarizes. "We are here to support them."