The expression "grandfather clause" is used to describe the implementation of a reform, most often important, and especially in relation to economic and social life, which is intended to apply in the future and not to the people in place at the time when she is decided. The main goal is to guarantee a certain social peace by not brutally suppressing achievements, and by bringing all the changes, rarely more favorable, to future generations. The example of pension system reform is a good example of a grandfather clause.
The grandfather clause designates a measure, most often a social reform, which is decided at a given time but which is planned to be applied later.
In other words, the grandfather clause means that we decide not to affect the rights and achievements of the beneficiaries of certain measures, but to modify them and apply them to new entrants to the system concerned by these modifications.
The expression "grandfather clause" is aptly named in the sense that it represents the fact of protecting in some way the "older generations" who benefit from a particular status when a reform is decided.
The grandfather clause has the consequence of establishing, within the same system, which can be for example that of the labor market, the health care system, pensions, etc., a functioning at several speeds. The people affected by the rules already in place are therefore not affected by the arrival of new measures, while newcomers to the system depend on the new decisions that apply.
In a nutshell, the grandfather clause is about preserving much of the vested rights of those in place and, on the other hand, changing the game for future generations.
With the grandfather clause, all people who normally have the same status are no longer treated on the same footing. A situation which can be the source of social tensions in particular, but which also aims, from a political and social point of view, to prevent the people who will continue to benefit from their achievements, when they are modified for others, are mobilizing against a new reform to come.
The reform currently undertaken by the government with the aim of establishing a universal pension system, while there are currently 42 different pension schemes, each with their own calculation rules, is a good illustration of this grandfather clause.
Thus, in order in particular not to alienate people close to retirement today, it was decided to apply this reform slowly, and not suddenly to everyone. Older generations thus remain sheltered from the new, more restrictive measures concerning in particular the retirement age and the conditions of contributions to pension insurance, while those who are approaching the end of their professional life will be affected, as well as new assets.
In its forecasts for the implementation of its reform, the government has provided that the new universal pension system will come into force, with its rights, its new conditions for retirement and calculation of pensions, in January 2022 for people born in the 2004 generation. Consequently, the grandfather clause applies here in this case for all generations born before this date who will continue to benefit from the pension system currently in force.
In the same way, a grandfather clause applies today concerning the calculation of retirement pensions. Thus, for periods of professional activity before 1973, pension rights are calculated in particular on the basis of a system of quarters and taking into account the best years in terms of income, which differ according to the year of birth. of the insured.
For the periods worked after 1973, there are no longer any differences between the number of quarters necessary to obtain a full pension according to one's age. It must indeed be 172 quarters for everyone.
