Michel Barnier had planned to freeze the increase in pensions in 2025 to reduce the public deficit. Rumors spoke of an exceptional check for certain retirees. Then the government announced a partial increase in January, followed by another in July. However, these increases were expected to be lower than initially expected.
The increase in fact predicted 0.9% in January 2025 and 0.9% in July 2025. Retirees therefore very quickly understood that they would lose financially. This increase was expected to slightly improve their purchasing power. Not at all enough to satisfy those mainly concerned. Nobody imagined then that a positive change would occur for retirement pensions. However, recent events which have shaken up national institutions have reshuffled the cards in a positive way. The censorship of Michel Barnier's government was very badly received by many people, but not at all by retirees.
Retirement: what Michel Barnier’s government planned
The initial project for 2025 planned to postpone the increase in pensions until 1ᵉʳ July. This postponement was expected to save nearly four billion euros in the government's pockets. Faced with the anger of retirees, the government finally proposed a limited revaluation of 0.9% from January.
Small pensions, less than €1,430 per month, were to benefit from an additional increase in July. This revaluation aimed to compensate for inflation excluding tobacco as well as the delay accumulated over the first six months.
Cancellation following censorship of the Barnier project
Michel Barnier's finance bill was ultimately censored by the majority of deputies. The increase will therefore be based on the initial text of the Social Security Code. This provides that “the annual revaluation of the amounts of benefits whose provisions refer to this article is carried out on the basis of a coefficient equal to the evolution of the annual average of consumer prices, excluding tobacco, calculated on the last twelve monthly indices of these prices published by the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies the penultimate month preceding the date of revaluation of the services concerned.
With Michel Barnier's project, retirees would have therefore had a cruel loss of income. Indeed, according to INSEE data, inflation excluding tobacco was 2.2%. This is an amount well above the 1.6% provided for small pensions and 0.9% for others. A barely veiled joy then for all French people concerned by this text.
Retirement: the good news for the start of the year
The Ministry of the Economy will therefore ultimately
announce a 2.2% increase in retirement pensions au 1ᵉʳ January, according to
West France. This increase will represent on average €18 per month. It will be applied when pensions are paid at the beginning of February.
This revaluation is thus based on inflation measured by INSEE for the previous year. In 2025, to save four billion euros, the government and right-wing senators planned to reduce this increase. This plan was therefore abandoned after censorship by the government of Michel Barnier. As the saying goes, one person's misfortune makes another person's happiness.
