Old Age Pension Scheme for Civil and Military Servants

Mandatory insurance

• Civil servants of the state, the magistrates (judges and public prosecutors) and military servants.

General finances

• Mainly tax-financed out of the state budget (a special category has been created in the laws on public finances for the financial governance of this scheme). 
• Partly PAYG-financed from insurance contributions of the public servants.

Contribution rates

• Fixed share of monthly gross earnings; without contribution assessment ceiling. 
• Contributions are shared between public servants and the employer (i.e. state). 
• Public servants pay a monthly contribution of 10.83% of their monthly gross earnings (in 2019).
• The employer (i.e. state) pays a contribution of 74.28% for public servants and 126.07% for military servants (in 2019). This is a virtual contribution; instead of paying, the state retrospectively indicates this amount as expenditure in its budget.

Taxation of contribution payments

• Tax exemptions for insurance contributions.

• The Directorate General of Public Finances (Direction générale des finances publiques) is in charge of the functioning of the scheme.
• Since 2009, the Service for State Pensions (service des retraites de l’Etat) has been created within the Directorate General of Public Finances. Its mission concerns especially the payment of pension benefits.

Qualifying conditions for public servants

• Conditions vary according to the category of the public servant: for ‘sedentary servants’ (such as office workers) the statutory (minimum) retirement age is 62, the minimum service period is 2 years; for ‘active servants’ (such as police officers), the standard (minimum) retirement age is 57, the minimum service period is 17 years.
• Full-rate pension: the insured person must either have a minimum contribution record of 172 quarters (if born after 1973) or must have reached the full-rate pension age of 67 (for the ‘sedentary’ category) or 62 (for the ‘active’ category).

Early retirement

• Available for persons who have a long career (i.e. when they started to work before the age of 20) 2 years before retirement age, without negative adjustments to pension benefits.

Deferred retirement

• In general, a person can be asked to retire when reaching a certain age (67 for persons born after 1955 in the sedentary category; 62 for persons born after 1955 in the active category).
• There are exceptions concerning the age limit, if the person has not yet reached the minimum service period.

Combining employment & retirement

• Under certain conditions, the person can combine a professional activity in the public or private sector with the claiming of pension benefits. 

Pension benefits

• Primarily based on last earnings prior to retirement and years of service. 
• Maximum amount: the full pension is the maximum amount of the pension benefits, which is 75% of the last earnings of the public servant.
• Minimum amount: similar to the minimum wage, i.e. around EUR 1,200 per month (lower amounts are possible under certain conditions), if the pension benefit is below a minimum level and if qualifying conditions for full-rate old age pension are met.

Benefit calculation

• The level of income which the person receives for at least six months before the onset of retirement (traitement incidiaire).
• The ratio between the period of service and the required period for a full pension.
• Adjustments: yearly adjustments of benefits, indexed to prices.

Taxation and social security contributions

• Pension benefits are subject to income tax.
• Pension benefits are not subject to social contributions, except the CSG, CRDS and CASA.