In case anyone has applied to CNAV recently regarding the start of a french pension they are entitled to, be aware that there are long delays in being assessed due to a huge backlog going back months. If you are awaiting and have finished working, make sure you have some savings put by to pay your bills until you get your first pension payment as there are daily reports both in the papers and on the news reports of pensioners having to get loans or family to pay bills because their applications have taken several months to get through the system. You won’t lose any money as it will be backdated but you still have to live and pay your way meantime!
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Wow that will be worrying for a lot of people.
Despite the moans we all have about the UK, the issuing of UK State Pension payments does work very smoothly, as long as you remember to ask for it (otherwise they defer you automatically).
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anyone experiencing difficulties could contact their Mairie who do have access to (limited) funds for emergencies (and also have useful contacts) and who can give details of the Assistante Sociale etc. 
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I’ve seen official suggestions of asking to take one’s retirement some 5 months (or even years) beforehand (starting the process), to avoid rupture of finances.
A personal friend started the process well in advance and was very, very nervous when his “time” gently approached and he still hadn’t got things confirmed. 
However, at the last minute… suddenly all was OK… (although he’d gained several more grey hairs in the meantime due to the stress )
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As I recall when I applied many years ago now the rule was to apply at least 6 months ahead of your chosen pension date. My experience was similar to what Stella described, a long wait and then at the last minute, a deluge of paperwork and the pensions were paid on time.
Of course in the UK there is often no calculation to be done apart from looking to see how many years contributions you have been credited with. In France everybody’s pension is different according to their earnings, their trimestres and potentially other factors. So the first stage is to double check the career history they have for you, trimestre by trimestre starting from the day you started work, and you may be asked for information about any gaps in the records. I remember being asked to clarify why I had gaps in my records while I was a student in the UK. In fact it was simply because in my first and second years I took holiday jobs, butin my final year I did not because I wanted to focus on my studies. However CARSAT said they could not process my application until they had an explanation for every blank trimestre, I suppose they just need be sure that their records were correct.
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Yes that’s fair comment.
Currently I think you can apply for the UK State Pension online if you will reach pensionable age in the next 3 months. IIRC they also send you a letter telling you when you can apply.
Carsat took a while with my application and kept asking for the same old papers time and time again to be sent. It was nothing like the current situation though and it came through two months after it was due to start but backdated which seems the norm. One of the problems is the turnover of staff and never a direct point of contact.
One of my 2 French pensions, unclaimed for a year because I had no idea it existed, was paid strictly from the day I finally claimed it, firmly told no backdating to my retirement date.
I think Shiba has been talking about Pensions being backdated to the Retirement start-date if the Govt Dept was late in finalising the Pension Package for someone… that is someone who had started their Claim well before Retirement Date.
You didn’t claim yours at the correct time, so “they” weren’t late in paying it … thus nothing to back-date…
Thats right. I put off one of my french ones because leaving it another year added over €100/month more BUT they did inform me and ask me what I wanted to do and I had to send the signed letter back as well. Carsat sent letters every year reminding of when I could start my application and then the goalposts were moved for the age being upped.
Out of interest I wonder what happens if,for whatever reason, a person cannot provide suitable documents or an explanation for gaps in trimestres, especially something that occurred many years previously.
Do the authorities refuse to count that trimestre towards a pension, or do they for example, accept an attestation sur l’honneur or something similar?
I don’t know the answer to your question, George, but I do know that the number accepted/announced by the UK authorities surprised me because I had spent some years working abroad earlier in my career.
I wasn’t going to argue on that occasion though. 
Because of the stress/chaos my pal went through putting his dossier together and providing any information as and when asked for… I suspect the “attestation or similar” is not acceptable and lack of proof would result in reduced pension…
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That is why you keep every bulletin de salaire forever as proof. I only had to claim from when I started to work in France for which they already had the details from the employers and was never asked for anything but it was not full time employment so maybe that is where the difference lies because with full time, there would be claims for chomage if applicable to cover blank trimesters that employers did not furnish. Talking of Carsat, they have just sent my monthly notice of payments made, so something is still working.
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In theory if it is a query on work done in France the person should be able to provide the relevant documents. The rule is that every French payslips should be kept until you have retired, so technically you would be at fault if you have not kept them. In practice I do not know how often the records show a gap where something should be recorded but I suspect not very often. My career record for France was spot on and I was not asked to provide anything. I think it would be an unfortunate coincidence if there happened to be an error on one of your trimestres and you happened to have lost your payslips for that very same trimestre.
In my case the reason my record was showing a gap was because there was in fact a gap in my contributions because I had not been employed for that period and nor had I claimed benefits. I imagined that CARSAT simply wanted to have my written agreement that nothing had been missed off the UK records that I might later come back to contest.
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Me too. Looking at my NI record, they’ve credited me with full years of contributions both when at school, and even on my gap year (spent overseas) between school and university. I’m not complaining, as I seem to have 40 years worth of full years.
Incidentally, HMRC recently told me that provided I accessed the Government Gateway at least once every 3 years, I would not lose access to my online account (that contains my UK NI contributions records).
Thats the most logical explaination I would have thought. If you drop off the employment/contributions radar for any reason, they will query it if it came during times you were employed. Everyone here who applies has different working histories, especially women who took time out to be at home mothers (I got that included) and for other reasons, so they have a lot of calculating to do to come up with a final pension payment based on so many factors.
Yes, my husband has been waiting for close to a year:( It’s starting to get very difficult. You also don’t seem to get any kind of update from them on when it will go through so difficult to plan:(
Have you checked the CNAV online site, that is usually quite helpful?
Thanks, yes he has but they just say it will be ready when it’s ready. I guess we’ll have to call them.