pensions

[water spaniel]

Now that new entrants to France will have to fund their own healthcare until state retirement age what would be the position of someone taking early retirement from the UK and then working in France self employed?

Is it possible to transfer existing UK state pension entitlement into the French system and continue to work until 60(female) and then retire on a French state pension?

If so, what would the pension rates be in France?

 

[cooperlola]

Water Spaniel, I cannot give you all the facts, but somebody in the know will fill in the blanks.  As I understand it you would have to pay full French "cotisations" and taxes on your income from your self-employment, but you could not transfer any entitlements from the UK, to here.  As you would be joining the French state system relatively late in life, your French pension entitlements would not be much, if anything.  Ergo, you would need to continue to pay NI contributions on a volunary basis in the UK until you had your full 30 years in the fund in order to qualify for your UK old age pension, and an E121 on retirement.

However, your contributions to the French system, would qualify you for health cover, if the earnings were high enough. 

There are plenty on here who do this and they'll give you the "Full Monty" on this.

[water spaniel]

I already have the full 30 years UK contributions, due to the changes in the UK system I won't have to pay any more if I leave but I will not get anything here until 65, I am 50 now.

I want to leave my current career of 30 yrs and lifestyle in the UK and get my life back, already have a house in France and realise that I will have to contribute, just need to know where I stand. 

[cooperlola]

Well then you would face 15 years of either

 a) living on any early retirement pension you may have, bearing in mind that you would have to pay for full health insurance cover for at least 3 years (expiry of E106 to the date you may qualify as a permanent resident) and possibly 13 - if the residency rule turns out to be spurious (that's when your E121 would kick in) - we do not know which of these will apply yet under the new rules, but are attempting to find out for certain.

or b) Becoming self-employed and paying full French cotisations on your income (can be around 50%) into the French system, for which you are unlikely to be able to build up enough pension credit (but here I am unclear as to the detail, so you need to clarify this) to get much of a French pension, given that you will have joined so late.

or c) Finding employment here, for which you would need around 60 hours per month to get state healthcare.

[water spaniel]

Thanks Cooperlola

 

I am planning ahead, I may be able to take early retirement at the end of the financial year,I hope so!

I would like to do some work that I can take ownership of so self employment probably best but if I only need to work for someone else for 60hours a month to get healthcare that may be an option if anything available. Can this be in a block? I am thinking of seasonal work such as tourism related or fruit picking.

[cooperlola]

You'll find some info' here towards the end of this thread, and useful links, from those in the know!

http://www.completefrance.com/cs/forums/1031026/ShowPost.aspx