Retirement: Why Do We Have to Wait Until September for the Adjustment?

A disappointment for retirees: the increase in the minimum contribution threshold, originally scheduled for the spring, has been postponed by several months. This decision affects 1.1 million retirees.

If you are retired and receive a modest pension, you may recall that the government announced a year ago an increase in the smallest pensions for 1.7 million people. 

However, due to technical constraints, this adjustment has so far been implemented for only 600,000 retirees. The remaining 1.1 million retirees will have to wait until September 2024 to benefit from this measure.

Of the 1.7 million small pensions affected, only 600,000 have been adjusted to date. Recipients of the minimum contributory pension (MiCo) who have already received this increase have seen their pensions rise by 50 euros gross, according to Renaud Villard, director general of the National Old-Age Insurance Fund (Cnav).

However, this increase in small pensions was initially intended to benefit a broader group—a total of 1.7 million retirees—of whom 1.1 million are still awaiting payment. Olivier Dussopt, former Minister of Labor, explained that this adjustment would be phased in through early 2024, as many insured individuals have made contributions to several different pension funds, requiring a reconstruction of their employment histories.

Contrary to initial announcements, the second phase of the adjustment for small pensions will not take place in April. The National Old-Age Insurance Fund, through its director, official circulars, and an internal document, had already indicated that the one-time adjustment would take place no later than September. Given the technical difficulties associated with this adjustment, this deadline will ultimately become the effective implementation date.

The 1.1 million retirees still waiting will therefore have to be patient, as Renaud Villard announced in *Les Echos*: “I don’t think we can do any better; the timeline is already very tight.” Those eligible for the pension increase will therefore have to wait until September 2024 to see their pensions rise, even as inflation persists and continues to erode their purchasing power.

If you are one of the 1.1 million retirees who will benefit from the increase in the minimum contributory pension, you should know that the average amount of this increase is expected to reach 60 euros gross, according to Renaud Villard. This amount is 10 euros higher than what is already received by those who benefited from the increase in small pensions. This difference is due to the fact that retirees still awaiting the increase retired earlier and therefore receive a lower pension.

Furthermore, the increase in small pensions applies not only to those already retired but also to new retirees, effective September 2023. On average, this reform has enabled new MiCo recipients to receive 49 euros more, according to Drees statistics, compared to the pension they would have received before this increase took effect.