Why the government targets retirees to reduce the public deficit

By announcing a “white year”, on July 15, François Bayrou chose to freeze the amount of all social benefits for 2026. A strong gesture that does not spare retirees, whose pensions will no longer be upgraded with inflation. A loss of 320 euros out of twelve months, on average, for a person. The last similar measure dates back to 2014. A hitherto avoided choice, which would bring in 3.7 billion euros (1) out of the 43.8 billion savings targeted. But why target this population now?

“There is no choice, with regard to the budgetary situation,” points out Erwann Tison, economist at the University of Strasbourg. In forty years, the weight of pensions on wages has doubled. Contributions to finance our distribution model mobilize almost 30 % of the salary of an asset, compared to 15 % before. It is also necessary to recall an often poorly understood principle of the distribution system: pensions do not depend on contributions paid during the career, but on the capacity of workers to finance those of their elders.

However, the assets are fewer and fewer and their wages stagnate: finance the 350 billion euros in expenses for pensions weighs heavy for young generations, in difficulty to save and accommodate, and for the State, whose debt continues to grow. “Since three -quarters of retirees are owners and that 97 % have a standard of living at least equal to the national average, the government calls for their solidarity,” said economist Philippe Crevel, who stresses that retirees are not a homogeneous block.

Save the most modest

Not all are rolling on gold: 723,000 live with the minimum old age (2) – a service also frozen, which worries opposition and associations. François Bayrou opened the door to adjustments. A social dialogue must settle until the presentation of the budget, in October. By then, the executive has proposed the abolition of the tax reduction of 10 % on pensions, in favor of a single package of 2000 euros per year, supposed to have the wealthiest contributed without touching the most modest, since “one retired in two is not taxable”, recalls Philippe Crevel. Eighteen million retirees and as many realities.

(1) French observatory for economic conjunctures;

(2) Directorate of research, studies, evaluation and statistics, Dec. 2023.