A measure contained in the pension reform allows many employees and many retirees to increase the amount of their retirement pension. Their retirement file must be corrected by the national old-age insurance fund.
Many retirement files are riddled with errors. A report from the Court of Auditors reveals that 10.5% of pensions present anomalies: undeclared contributions, forgotten quarters, etc. Clearly, one in 10 retirees could receive a higher retirement pension if it was calculated correctly. The shortfall for injured retirees ranges between 40 and 180 euros gross per month on average according to the Directorate of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES).
Among the penalized retirees, there are former employees of the private sector. A provision of the 2023 pension reform should, however, make it possible to reassess upwards their retirement pension paid by the general system. The measure specifically concerns women who had children before 2012. The system plans to integrate daily maternity leave allowances (IJ) into the calculation of the reference salary serving as a basis for defining the amount of their pension. This is useful when these periods of maternity leave are among the best 25 years of an employee’s career.
As a reminder, in the private sector, the amount of the retirement pension depends on the average annual salary (SAM), calculated from the 25 calendar years where the gross salaries received were the highest. This method of calculation disadvantaged women whose maternity leave had reduced their level of remuneration. Indeed, during maternity leave, the IJ paid are generally lower than the usual salary. When these years of maternity were among the 25 years used to calculate retirement, they mechanically lowered the SAM and, consequently, the amount of the pension.
Until now, only women who started maternity leave after January 1, 2012 benefited from the IJ being taken into account in the calculation of their retirement. From now on, retirement insurance has extended this system to women who began their maternity leave before January 1, 2012. This concerns all women who have retired since September 1, 2023, as well as employees currently preparing for their retirement.
However, rather than taking the exact amount of IJ paid at the time, the administration calculates a flat rate base. This base is constructed from the median salary of the year preceding the leave, adjusted according to the duration of maternity leave, and increased by 125%. A headache-inducing calculation…
To better understand, let’s take the example cited by the specialist firm Qualiretraite, revealed by the consumer association Que Choisir Ensemble. A woman born in 1972, mother of 3 children (born before 2012), benefits from a full pension. With a SAM of 34,320.98 euros, his pension is estimated at 1,429.90 euros net per month without taking into account IJ. If the latter are included in the calculation, his pension would then reach 1,455.04 euros net per month, or a gain of more than 300 euros per year.
To benefit from this increase, retirees and employees who became mothers before 2012 must take steps with the National Old Age Insurance Fund (CNAV). They must contact their pension fund directly and request the revaluation of their average annual salary for daily maternity leave benefits received before 2012. The pension fund normally receives the amounts from the Primary Health Insurance Fund (CPAM), but it may be necessary to provide the IJ payment slip if the information does not appear in the files.
