This revaluation of Agirc-Arrco pensions concerns the 13.2 million private pensioners.
After the 4% increase in basic pensions in September, it is the turn of supplementary pensions for private sector employees to be revised upwards. The social partners, managers of the Agirc-Arrco scheme, decided almost unanimously on Thursday that pensions would increase by 5.12% on November 1. For the regime, this represents an additional expense of 4.5 billion euros. For the 13.2 million private pensioners, this is good news because the Agirc-Arrco supplementary pensions represent between 30 and 60% of the amount of their total pension.
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“The social partners base their decisions on prudent economic assumptions, while respecting the golden rule, which consists in having in reserve at all times at least six months of pension payments over a 15-year horizon.“, indicated Didier Weckner, president of the Agirc-Arrco, representative of the employers, to justify this figure. “The revaluation of pensions cannot be greater than that of wages because in a pay-as-you-go system it is the working people who pay the pensions of retirees“, indicated Brigitte Pisa, vice-president of Agirc-Arcco, representing the employees.
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This revaluation corresponds to the maximum increase that the plan could achieve by respecting the calculation rules set by its agreements. “This value is significantly higher than that of the previous year (1%) and also that which was applied to the basic pension scheme last summer, welcomed Force Ouvrière. A lesser revaluation would not have been acceptable given the very good health of the plan’s reserves and the difficulties of purchasing power“.
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But, beyond the revaluation of pensions, the social partners are ulcerated by the government’s decision, included in the social security financing bill (PLFSS), to transfer to Urssaf on January 1 next the recovery contributions today made by Agirc-Arrco. They have already planned to table six amendments calling for the repeal of this measure.
“If the goal is to strip private pensioners of their reserves, this is unacceptable. Who would agree to be stripped of their bank account, so that we give it to someone else next door? » .
Didier Weckner, president of Agirc-Arrco
The government justifies this reform, planned for 2022 and which has already been postponed due to the health crisis, by the need to save on management costs and simplify procedures. False justifications, for the unions as for the employers, who are upwind and united – for once – in the same opposition. Politically, the decision seems to them unjustified, worse they suspect the government of wanting to capture the reserves of the Agirc-Arcco plan to fill the deficit of the pension system. Technically, they put forward a real risk of execution, affirming that the conditions of the transfer are not met three months from the deadline.
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“This war machine must be stopped. It would be catastrophic, companies do not want it. The capture of our resources is incomprehensible, hammered Brigitte Pisa. Isn’t this a pension reform that would not say its name? This is a major danger for the right dues link “. “If this is not hidden reform, what is it?», confirms Didier Weckner. “There are no savings to be made on the deduction of contributions. If the goal is to strip private pensioners of their reserves, this is unacceptable. Who would agree to be stripped of their bank account, so that we give it to someone else next door? We must not put all the contributions in a large washing machine, which would no longer make it possible to know who pays what. When you pay rights, you have to have the contributions that go with it.“, concludes the president of Agirc-Arrco.
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