Retirees are among the winners from the fall of the government. In 2025, their basic pension will increase by 2.2%, while Michel Barnier's team wanted to apply several levels of increase, of a lower value. The decision, announced on Tuesday, December 10, by Bercy, is the logical consequence of the motion of censure adopted, six days earlier, by the deputies: it had caused the rejection of the Social Security financing bill (PLFSS) which contained the revaluation scenarios programmed by the power in place, after tough negotiations with parliamentarians. This final arbitration leads to additional expenses, in a sector where the executive initially hoped to make savings, and puts an end to a controversy which weakened the Prime Minister, who has now resigned.
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In the first version of the PLFSS, presented in October, the government had planned an increase (equal to inflation) which would have occurred on 1is July 2025, instead of July 1is January. A change of calendar synonymous with freezing for a semester, which would have made it possible to limit the bill by some 3.6 billion euros. The choice having triggered an avalanche of criticism from all political forces, another system was developed, with the aim of preserving the purchasing power of the most modest. It consisted of raising in two stages pensions less than or equal to 1,500 euros gross per month, so that they increase in 2025 by 1.6%, i.e. the percentage corresponding to the price evolution expected at the end of April 2025 . For pensions above 1,500 euros, increases, oscillating between + 0.8% and + 1.4% for the year 2025, were set.
Despite the softenings made to the text, the oppositions continued to denounce it, to the point of seeing it as an argument – with others – to vote for the motion of censure on December 4. The PLFSS being, therefore, thrown into oblivion, it is the “usual” rules, enshrined in the Social Security code, which apply to determine the revaluation: the quantum is decided on the basis of inflation observed at the end of October – therefore + 2.2% (based on the evolution of the annual average of consumer prices, excluding tobacco, calculated over the last twelve months).
“It’s virtuous for our economy”
“It’s a good thing”reacts Yvan Ricordeau, number two of the CFDT. “It’s a defeat for the government and a first victory for retirees”continues Denis Gravouil. The confederal secretary of the CGT considers, however, that we should go further for people receiving small pensions, hit hard, according to him, by the rising prices of certain products and services (such as mutual insurance). His counterpart from Force Ouvrière, Michel Beaugas, emphasizes that the increase retained makes it possible to support household demand: “It’s virtuous for our economy, because growth in France is driven by consumption”he argues in response to all those who consider that efforts should be asked of retirees, so that they contribute to the recovery of the Nation's accounts.
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