the government and the right announce a compromise for a revaluation on January 1, 2025

The government and the right have found a compromise to revalue all pensions by half of inflation on 1^is January 2025, then the smallest pensions in July. The announcement, made by Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Right Republican group (formerly Les Républicains), on Monday evening, was confirmed on Tuesday November 12 by the Minister of the Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin. The measure will cost up to 800 million euros.

« Au 1^is January, all pensions will be revalued by probably 0.9%, that is to say half of inflation – we will see exactly what the inflation estimate will be. (…) And at 1^is July 2025, there will be a catch-up for all pensions which are below the minimum wage level so that there is no loss of purchasing power”declared Mr. Saint-Martin on France 2.

“Depending on the reality of inflation, this may vary and we will actually be between 500 and 800 million euros returned to small pensions”reducing the hoped-for savings to 3 billion, he said.

Among its savings options for 2025, the government first proposed to postpone six months (from 1^is January to 1^is July) the indexation of pensions to inflation to save around four billion euros. A measure criticized including by the supporters of the coalition in the Assembly.

“Consultation method”

Laurent Wauquiez assured the TF1 television news on Monday that he had found a compromise with the government on the subject.

Laurent Saint-Martin assured that he knew that this announcement would be made by Mr. Wauquiez. “The Prime Minister has said since the start of this government that we wanted a method of consultation with this coalition which is the majority base in the National Assembly and the Senate, and that there could be changes to the text”he said. « We also need to further demonstrate that the evolution of this text comes from compromises between the government and parliamentarians from the majority base”he added.

“The Prime Minister is open to compromise. They discussed this subject with Laurent Wauquiez and he will have the opportunity to give details soon”the head of government's entourage declared to Agence France-Presse. An amendment to this effect should be tabled during the debates on the Social Security budget in the Senate, said an LR parliamentary source.

“For someone who has a small pension, that matters”

Laurent Wauquiez quantified on TF1 the expected benefits of the measure. “For a retiree, caregiver, who receives 1,000 euros of retirement per month (…) This will represent a gain over the year of 200 euros”he affirmed, grateful “modest amounts”. More “for someone who has a small pension, that counts”he justified.

To finance this revaluation, the former president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region intends to seek “1 billion” in the rationalization of « bureaucracy administrative »by merging certain organizations such as France Stratégie, the High Commission for Planning, France 2030 and the Center for Prospective Studies.

As the Social Security budget could not be examined within the time allocated to the Assembly, it was transmitted to the Senate, which will examine it from Wednesday in committee, then in the hemicycle from November 18 to 23.