In France, the pension system includes many pension schemes (42), each with its own rules in terms of retirement ages, pension calculation methods or contribution rates. The private sector and civil service pension schemes differ for the same reasons, but also for others, in particular the different organizations that manage the basic and supplementary pension schemes for private sector employees and public officials. /P>
Since the last major pension reforms dating from 2003 and 2010, a number of criteria specific to the private sector pension scheme and those in force in the civil service have been aligned. Thus, the minimum retirement age (62 years), the age to obtain a full-rate pension, the insurance period required to benefit from a full-rate pension, or even the premium and discount schemes applied to retirement pensions are now identical in the private and public sectors. However, differences still exist between private sector and public sector pension plans.
As regards the minimum retirement age in the public sector, although it is normally the same as in the public sector (62 years), certain categories of so-called "active" civil servants benefit from a derogation from the basic principle because that agents in this category occupy jobs which present a particular risk or exceptional fatigue. The latter have the right to retire from the age of 57. Others, such as the active staff of the national police, the surveillance of the penitentiary administration, the air traffic controllers, the agents of the underground sewer networks and the agents of the body of identifiers of the forensic institute of the prefecture of Paris police can retire at the age of 52.
Throughout their professional career, active people contribute to their pension plan(s) to finance the pensions of retirees and to be able to benefit in turn from rights when they retire.
These contributions are not at the same level in the private sector and in the public sector. Those of private sector employees, deducted from their gross salary, which relate to their basic and supplementary pensions, are higher than the contributions of civil servants.
The bases for calculating the retirement pensions of civil servants and private sector employees are not the same either. For the latter, it is the best 25 years of their salary that are taken into account for their retirement from the general scheme, while for public officials, it is the last 6 months of remuneration.
In addition, the salary considered in the private sector includes any bonuses received, which is not the case in the public sector even if the latest reforms tend to unify this measure between the two sectors.
The private sector and civil service pension schemes differ from each other, in particular because they are not under the same management bodies for the basic and supplementary pension schemes.
If private sector employees depend for their basic pension scheme on the National Old Age Insurance Fund (Cnav), the largest pension fund in France because it concerns 14 million retirees, or on the Mutualité sociale agricole (MSA ) as salaried or non-salaried agricultural workers, civil servants come under different bodies, each with their own rules applicable to retirement.
Thus, pensioners from the State civil service are attached for their basic pension scheme to the State Pensions Service (SRE), the second largest pension scheme in France (4.4 million civil servants, magistrates and soldiers depend on it) the largest after the general old-age insurance scheme. This pension scheme, financed by the State, includes several:the civil retirement pension scheme (civil servants and magistrates); the military retirement pension scheme; the temporary disability allowance scheme for civil servants (corresponding to the risk of work-related accidents); the system of military pensions for invalidity and victims of war; the retreat of the combatant; the Alsace-Moselle pension scheme; as well as the salaries attached to the Legion of Honor and the Military Medal.
The agents of the territorial public service and the hospital public service are attached to the National pension fund for local authority agents (CNRACL), which manages 1.2 million retirees.
Finally, there is a third pension scheme in the public sector:the Special Pension Fund for Workers in State Industrial Establishments (FSPOEIE) which concerns just over 80,000 retired public officials.
Some of these different civil service pension schemes can manage both the basic pension and the supplementary pension for civil servants and related workers. In the private sector, employees must contribute to their supplementary pension to the General Association of Pension Institutions for Executives - Association for the supplementary pension scheme for employees (Agirc-Arrco). And public service contractors depend, for their supplementary pension scheme, on the Supplementary Pension Institution for Non-Permanent State and Public Authority Agents (Ircantec).
As many organizations with different organization and management of the procedures applicable to retirement on the one hand within the civil service itself, which also explain the differences that exist between the pension schemes of the private sector and the public.
