This is one of the main campaign themes. The candidates have different proposals on pensions. They also have arguments against their adversary’s plans. The True of False Unit sifts through three statements.
“We have one of employment rate of seniors among the lowest in Europe”
We start with Anne Hidalgo who opposes candidates who want to push back the retirement age, with this argument: “We are told that this is what will finance the pension system, while the employment rate for seniors is one of the lowest in Europe.”
At first glance, this is rather true. If we look at the employment rate for seniors on Eurostat, ie 55-64 year olds, it is around 55% in France. This is four points less than the European Union average, we are neck and neck with Spain, Italy and Austria. Except that on closer inspection, we notice that the dropout with us is especially marked after 60 years, according to the Ministry of Labor. Which can be explained because people are retiring earlier. Moreover, if we look at the employment rate before the age of 60, France is in the European average. Another explanation, several EU countries have massively developed part-time work for seniors, notes the Ministry of Labor and a report by France Strategy.
“I propose that we index pensions to inflation.
We continue with Nicolas Dupont-Aignan who recommends a mechanism to upgrade pensions: “I propose that we index pensions to inflation. They have been deindexed since François Hollande, Emmanuel Macron minister, and it continues.”
It’s almost true: in theory the law already provides for the indexation of pensions to changes in consumer prices. Except that in fact, this device has been regularly circumvented. For example, basic pensions were frozen under the mandate of François Hollande. And then fairly regularly, revaluations are delayed by a few months, which ends up weighing on the amount of pensions since there is no catch-up.
“We live shorter since we work longer”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon, rebellious candidate, highlights life expectancy: “We live shorter since we work longer because of the reforms of Messrs. Sarkozy and Hollande.”
It’s wrong. If we look at INSEE data, life expectancy has rather increased between 2007 and today. We went to women from 84 to 85 years old. It’s clearer among men, where we went from 77 to 79 years. Healthy life expectancy is not declining either. It has been fairly stable since the 2000s and places us, according to the latest comprehensive data at European level, in the EU average, or even slightly above for women.