Retirement

Permanent researchers at INRAE pay into the retirement fund for civil servants. Retirement is the culmination of one’s active working life, a period during which people receive a set monthly sum of money known as a pension. In this section, you can find out more about France’s retirement system, including how it is structured, the amount of pension to expect, and the retirement process.

French retirement system

France’s retirement system adheres to the principles of wealth redistribution and solidarity across generations. During someone’s active working life, they are required to contribute to one or more retirement funds. Their contributions are proportional to their earnings. These contributions cover the retirement of those who have already retired. In turn, when a contributor retires, their pension is financed by those who are still actively employed.

In return for the contributions made throughout their working life, the retiree receives a pension from the various retirement funds they paid into while employed. This pension is a set monthly amount that the retiree will receive for the rest of their life. The retiree is thus guaranteed a minimum level of financial resources in exchange for their years of work.

The pension amount depends on a person’s income, retirement age, and number of years spent working (calculated in quarters). 

Retirement schemes

Permanent employees at INRAE are affiliated with France’s civil service pension scheme (Fonction Publique de l’Etat, or FPE). Your monthly contribution is deducted from your paycheck. The contributions made throughout your career serve to build up your retirement.

Your pension has two components. Your basic retirement will come from France’s pension scheme for government employees (Service des Retraites de l’Etat, or SRE). You will also receive a secondary retirement from the complementary pension fund for civil servants (Service de retraite additionnelle de la fonction publique, or RAFP).

As a civil servant, you accumulate retirement points, which are attributed based on the various bonuses and indemnities that you received over the course of your career.

Useful link

• Complementary retirement for civil servants (RAFP)

Calculating your retirement

The amount of retirement received by permanent employees at INRAE is calculated using the most recent indexed earnings that were stable for at least 6 months. The calculation also takes into account your total insurance period, that is to say your contribution periods and periods treated as such (summed across all pension schemes). Additionally, it incorporates the number of qualifying quarterly periods. The amount of your retirement may be reduced or increased depending on your total insurance period.

Generally speaking, people who worked as full-time civil servants for the entirety of their careers retire with a monthly pension that represents around 75% of their gross indexed earnings.

If someone has worked under and contributed to different schemes during their life (e.g., private sector, agricultural sector, civil service, self-employment, liberal professions, and/or specialised schemes), they will be paid retirement from each scheme. In such a case, you will receive multiple pensions.

Useful links

• Retirement amounts received under the public-sector pension scheme
• Retirement from the public vs. private sector: determining your pension

Retirement age

In France, the minimum statutory retirement age depends on your year of birth. It ranges between 62 for people born before September 1, 1961 to 64 for people born on or after January 1, 1968. To receive a pension, you must have made contributions for a specified number of quarters. However, it is possible to retire before your minimum statutory retirement age if you began working young, if you have become incapacitated, or you are disabled. You can also retire after 67 years of age, if your career was interrupted by parenting (i.e., of at least 3 children) or for other reasons, or if you did not contribute for a sufficient number of quarters.

While there is no age limit for retirement under the private-sector scheme, there is under the public-sector scheme. Government employees must retire at age 67 or before (with some exceptions).

Useful link

• Working after 67 years of age: the consequences for your retirement

When you are ready to retire

As a civil servant, you need to take two steps to retire: 

• You must apply for retirement via your confidential online account on the government portal INFO RETRAITE, which centralises all employment data for public- and private-sector employees.
• Subsequently, you will receive an email asking you to fill in a retirement request form specific to civil servants (Demande de Retraite de l’État) via another portal dedicated to government employees—ENSAP. This portal allows you to open a confidential online account where information on your earnings is compiled as well as an individual retirement account that contains the data used to simulate and calculate your pension; it also indicates the amount you will receive upon retirement. Once you have completed this form, you must print it, sign it, and send it to the research unit director and the head of HR at your research centre for them to sign.

You must apply for retirement 6 months before your desired retirement date. That said, you should start planning a year ahead of time because you must ensure that the social security office has your complete employment records. You will also need to take any accumulated days of leave. 

Retirement support

If you have any questions about the retirement process, you can reach out to support staff: 

• HR personnel at your INRAE research centre can put you in touch with the institute’s retirement services
• An INRAE retirement counsellor can personally guide you through the retirement process
• You can take part in informational sessions and/or training courses dealing with retirement, which are regularly scheduled by INRAE 

Explore the website for CLEISS (Centre des liaisons européennes et internationales de sécurité sociale), a national public institution that provides information on social benefits for people who have had international careers.