The increase in pensions announced by Laurent Wauquiez will create losers, warns Xavier Bertrand. As a reminder, Monday evening, on TF1 news, the leader of the Republican Right announced that the government would defend a general increase in pensions by half of inflation on January 1, then a second on July 1 for small pensions only. For his part, the president of the Hauts-de-France region asked Michel Barnier this Thursday to ” to come back “ on this measure.
“It’s a sleight of hand”criticized the former mayor of Saint-Quentin on RTL. “I am going to ask Michel Barnier one thing, which is to come back to the measure which was announced by Laurent Wauquiez”, because she “makes 9 million losers among retirees”he developed.
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“Either Michel Barnier did not look exactly(…) either they realized that it was not a gift for retirees, that it was a gift for Bercy”argued Xavier Bertrand, denouncing “an announcement effect”. Because those who will only benefit from a revaluation of half of inflation, “They will be missing about 1%” this year but also “in 2026 and 2027, until the end of their days”he detailed.
A catch-up for low-income retirees
What is it really? Last Tuesday, the Minister of the Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin, explained on France 2 that all pensions would be revalued on January 1 to the tune of “half the inflation”, currently forecast at 1.8% for 2024, i.e. “ around 0.9% ».
For a pension of 1,200 euros, this revaluation of 0.9%, instead of 1.8% therefore, represents an revaluation of 10.8 euros, or 10.8 euros of ” loss “ compared to traditional indexation, which would have reached 21.6 euros per month. For a pension of 1,600 euros, the revaluation, like the ” loss “is 14.4 euros per month. For a pension of 1,900 euros, this figure rises to 17.4 euros per month.
As of July 1, 2025, low-income retirees – whose pensions “basic and complementary included” are lower than a net minimum wage (1,426.30 euros) – will be revalued a second time, with “compensation for shortfall in the 1st half”indicated Michel Barnier to the National Assembly. These people represent 44% of retirees, he said.
If inflation rises to 1.8%, they will therefore be revalued again by 0.9% and will receive, in addition, a “catch-up” equivalent to the loss of purchasing power suffered during the first six months of the year, the Budget Ministry told AFP.
Up to 209 euros in losses over one year
According to AFP calculations, for a pension of 1,200 euros, a retiree would see their monthly pension increase again by 10.8 euros, and would receive an additional sum, up to around 65 euros in total, to compensate for the absence of revaluation over the first six months. The form of this payment was not specified.
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For others, a retiree with a pension of 1,600 euros for example, who will not benefit from the second increase in July, the loss of income is around 173 euros over one year, compared to classic indexation. For a pension of 1,932 euros (the gross ceiling of pensions paid by Social Security), this loss is approximately 209 euros over one year, compared to full indexation.
As a reminder, Michel Barnier's government initially planned to revalue all pensions at the level of inflation (2%), not on January 1 as is customary, but on July 1 to save around 4 billion euros. .
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