Do the legal retirement age and unemployment insurance rules have an impact on the strategy of companies – sometimes shared by unions and the employees concerned – to part ways with seniors? According to a study by Unédic, published on Wednesday March 1, this hypothesis tends to be confirmed.
The legal retirement age indeed leads to a peak in conventional terminations three years before, which corresponds to the duration of unemployment compensation from which those over 55 could benefit, according to a study by Unédic.
In the latter, the association observes in 2021 a sharp increase to 59 years of these ruptures “by mutual agreement”, which give the right to unemployment, while the legal retirement age is 62 years and that those over 55 could be compensated for three years.
While 17% of the openings of the right to unemployment at age 56 are following a breakup, this figure rises to 25% at age 59, a rate “which goes back to the level of that observed for those in their thirties. , the age category most affected by contractual terminations”, notes Unédic. In 2010, when the legal retirement age was still 60, this peak was reached around 57-58.
This peak should shift in the future under the effect of the new unemployment insurance rules which have reduced since February 1 the maximum duration of compensation by 25% for new entrants to unemployment, i.e. 27 months instead of 36 for those over 55.
The government is also in favour, in the pension reform being debated in Parliament, that contractual terminations before the legal retirement age are subject to the same social package of 30% as those occurring after it is not for the only 20%.
According to the study, the postponement of the legal age from 60 to 62 led between 2010 and 2022 to an increase of 100,000 in the number of beneficiaries over 60 years old. Among these additional indemnities, 65,000 are 60 or 61 years old due to the difference in the legal age. And 20,000 are 65 or 66 years old, due to the shift in the age of cancellation of the discount (from 65 to 67 years old) and the increase in the contribution period.
Finally, the study focuses on a provision that allows, under conditions, to continue to be compensated by unemployment insurance beyond three years, until access to a full pension, at the latest. at age 67. At the end of June 2022, of the 72,000 benefit recipients aged 62 or over, 21,000 are beneficiaries of this system.
