The Minister of Budget and Public Accounts Laurent Saint-Martin said he was ready for “an opening” on the six-month freeze on pensions provided for in the 2025 budget, in favor of small pensions. It now remains for parliamentarians to set the threshold.
The measure angered everyone: shifting the indexation of pensions to inflation by six months, postponing it until July 1, 2025, in order to replenish the Social Security coffers. To calm anger against one of the most criticized provisions of the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) for 2025, the government is backing down: the Minister of the Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin, announced on France 2 that the The lowest pensioners would not be affected. It’s up to parliamentarians to set the threshold.
“We can make this shift and protect small pensions. The old age minimum will be revalued on January 1st and we will have a discussion [au Parlement] on the retirement threshold which will be protected and will not be impacted. Is it 1,200 euros, 1,400 or 1,600? We must have this debate so as not to penalize the most vulnerable retirees. declared the minister. If this shift was decided, he argued, it is because pensions were increased by 5.3% at the start of 2024, to compensate for high inflation which has since been reduced to below 2%. The savings will therefore be less than the 4 billion initially expected, but there is no question, he assured, of freezing pensions above the chosen threshold for longer than six months. “But we will have to find savings”insisted the minister.
Since the government announced its intention on October 2 to freeze pensions for 6 months, the RN, the left, the unions and even certain members of the political groups of the government coalition (the Republican Right, led by Laurent Wauquiez, and Ensemble pour la République, led by Gabriel Attal) protested against this use of an electoral base that had become crucial.
The revaluation of January 2024, which cost nearly 14 billion euros, is explained by the law which requires that pensions follow this increase in prices at the start of the year. Unless, of course, the law is amended, as proposed in this PLFSS.
“Tax nurse”
In the past, recent governments have already modified the rules for indexing pensions, sometimes by operating a differentiated increase between the best and worst-off pensioners. Faced with criticism, the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier, assured last week that he was “open”during the budgetary discussion, “new ideas or other ideas to find other ways” allowing for similar savings.
Laurent Saint-Martin nevertheless said to himself “totally unfavorable” to tax increases voted in the Finance Committee, whether an increase in taxes on life insurance, capital gains on the sale of main residences or inheritance, by defending taxes “temporary and targeted” announced by the government on the wealthiest and very large companies. “We are proud to have lowered taxes” he repeated, criticizing a “tax nurse” voted on in committee. As for the sale of State shares in certain companies where it still holds shares, Laurent Saint-Martin did not rule out transfers “in certain sectors where the question arises of maintaining the place of the State”in order to participate in the country’s debt reduction.
