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NormanH

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    Pensions in France

    in French Finance

    Posted

    I have 3 small French pensions from different "Caisses"so have had to jump through all the hoops

    French pensions  are calculated rather differently from the UK State Pension.

    For a start there are a I think 42 different branches each with different conditions that have been negotiated in partnership with the Unions over there years. If anyone here has a teachers' or civil service pension that's give some idea of the model since the amount you receive is based on three factors: how long you have worked; an average figure( which is calculated differently in the different branches) and something called the 'taux'   https://www.service-public.fr/particuliers/vosdroits/F21552

    Remember that there is a difference between the number of years you have to work to qualify for a pension, and the age at which you can take it. I believe that now in England you qualify for a full state pension after 35 years contributions (although I am open to correction on that), but you can't take it before 67 (in my day 65)

    In France you have to I have paid 42 years contributions, and this is going up on the new plan, so while  you might be allowed 60 or 62 many people will not have paid full  contributions by that age.

    Another difference is the way in which contributions in which contributions are calculated. In France contributions are calculated in France it is 'trimestres'  ad if by chance some of them are  not 'complete'  (that is to say that not enough hours have been worked to count  as a full 'trimestre' you can find yourself  with some incomplete years.

    There is no equivalent to the OAP: pensions of calculated according to the above rules, so there isn't a single standard pension, although in some circumstances there is a minimum, BUT there are many people on very low pensions, often women who did not work in their own right for example.

    One final difference is the retired people in France continue to pay some social charges( in bands according to their income) unlike in the UK where retired people do not pay National Insurance.

    I am not putting a case for or against the present reform or the protests against it, but I am trying to warn against making easy comparisons of very different systems.

     

     

     

     

    The Curious Affair of the Sale of a Property in France

    in Finding/Owning French Property

    Posted

    With advancing age is it really necessary to OWN a property?  I  rent a more comfortable place than I could ever hope  to buy, and am no longer  responsible for repairs. The landlord even replaces the filtre on the air-conditioning.

    I still have my barrel as well but it increasingly feels as if it were filled with wet sand and hung around my neck, so I am thinking of getting rid of that and just renting.

    Lovely day for a bike ride

    in Sport, Leisure and Pastimes

    Posted

    I bought a tricycle 8 years ago, thinking I was going to be able to use it easily in the little town in the Ariege where I was living. I was terribly disappointed  to find that with  the problems in my right leg I couldn't even manage to bend it enough to let that pedal turn over, and I had to  get someone  else to ride it to the local 'troc' where I sold it a a huge loss.

     

    I wish I had seen those two videos; they might have encouraged me to perservere...

     

     

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