[Baldrick]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking for advice from someone who has worked in France up to retirement age.

My situation is:

I moved to France 12 years ago and continued to pay my UK class 3 contributions up to the maximum required to give me a full UK state pension. I have worked in France for 12 years and paid my cotisations towards my French pension. I would be interested to hear from anyone who has been in a similar situation and taken retirement in France. I am trying to find out what my options are over the next 10 years.

Thanks,

Baldrick

 

[Bevdeforges]

They have started a program here to evaluate your French pension when you reach age 57 or 58. And they do ask you to provide information about other pension programs you have been part of during the years when you weren't working in France.

Don't know if they'll move up their evaluation, but you could contact the agency that has your French pension and ask.
Cheers,
Bev

 

[Baldrick]

They have started a program here to evaluate your French pension when you reach age 57 or 58. And they do ask you to provide information about other pension programs you have been part of during the years when you weren't working in France.

Don't know if they'll move up their evaluation, but you could contact the agency that has your French pension and ask.
Cheers,
Bev

Thanks for the reply Bev, I have heard of this and it's the reason I'm posing the question.

A friend of mine has been told he can take retirement at 60 on a full French pension using his UK entitlement, which would mean 6 years earlier than in the UK. Can this be true? There surely must be someone out there who has first hand knowledge of what goes on.

 

[Bevdeforges]

A friend of mine has been told he can take retirement at 60 on a full French pension using his UK entitlement, which would mean 6 years earlier than in the UK. Can this be true? There surely must be someone out there who has first hand knowledge of what goes on.

I don't know how the existence of UK pension credits affects things here - but AFAICT the recent raising of the minimum retirement age to 62 (from 60) depends entirely on what year you were born in.

Better to run this by the pension authority in France than to try to suss it out yourself from "someone said" or "I heard."
Cheers,
Bev

 

[Baldrick]

I don't know how the existence of UK pension credits affects things here - but AFAICT the recent raising of the minimum retirement age to 62 (from 60) depends entirely on what year you were born in.

Better to run this by the pension authority in France than to try to suss it out yourself from "someone said" or "I heard."
Cheers,
Bev

He was told this as part of his assessment (he is 58). I am just very sceptical of everything I am told by so called "officials" in France, as 9 times out of 10 they are talking rubbish.

 

[NewMexicanMove]

Global careers....

My husband is just turning 62 and retiring. We've worked in the UK (back in the late 70s!), in the France (80-86) and since in the US. My husband is retiring end of April, and we're in the process of moving permanently to France. (We've been here several months/year for the last 5 years.)

A couple of years ago, we had our 'dossiers de carrière" done at our local CRAMCO. They contacted the US, and got all that info; they got no response from the UK (typique, quoi!). They were going to go ahead to get him his pension at that point, but he decided to keep working for another two years. So he's putting in his "demande de retrait" at the end of this month.

So yes, go and see the folk in question. In person, if you can. The lady we've been talking to said they've a fair number of folk who've had global careers, and she seemed pretty used to it. And they'll be able to tell you if you can go ahead at 60, or need to wait until 62.

Hope this helps!

Cheers...

 

[Tinabee]

As far as I can tell, you can retire from the age of 62 in France but you will get a reduced pension based on the number of trimestres accumulated in France. Once you reach 65 (or the appropriate UK retirement age) then your NI contributions will be converted to trimestres to increase your French pension.

 

[Baldrick]

As far as I can tell, you can retire from the age of 62 in France but you will get a reduced pension based on the number of trimestres accumulated in France. Once you reach 65 (or the appropriate UK retirement age) then your NI contributions will be converted to trimestres to increase your French pension.

Thanks for the reply. I agree with you, I think this is what happens, but it contradicts what my friend was told. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

 

[Guest]

I worked for a short while in the UK and then for about 30 years in France. When I was 50 Iasked for and got a pension forecast from the UK and was told that I was entitled to a small pension, which could be increased if I chose to buy further years of contributions. This I did up to the maximum amount (double). This has been paid since I was 60.

In France I worked for a few trimestres in the private sector which entitled me to a tiny prorata pension from the CRAM. I mainly worked in the hospital service which gives me a pension from the CNRACL. Both the CRAM and the CNRACL gave me forecasts when I was nearing retirement age. I also paid into a private pension scheme for many years.

All the pensions are prorata and add up to not much but I manage (just about).
Don't be afraid to ask for information from the various agencies involved, I found everyone very helpful.