A recent discussion with my partner has highlighted the need for me to finally take a bit of notice of ( & responsibility for ) my financial position vis-à-vis my French pension… however small & theoretical it may or may not be.
To this troublesome end, I thought that I’d invite those far more knowledgeable than myself, to give me some pointers towards a point at which I might start.
Obviously any answers would need to be in the simplest terms possible, as I have little or no ability to understand anything on the subject of admin.
Many thanks in advance.
You need to create your espace at Les services en ligne de l'Assurance retraite
There you will find all the information they have on record about your career, your cotisations into whichever caisse(s) etc. You can correct the records if necessary, do simulations of what you would receive if you take your retirement at various ages, and eventually apply for it. Good luck, you will probably spend many hours on that platform.
Okay thank you both.
I’m a little worried as, some years ago, a friend of mine was due to retire at 62, but was told by his accountant that he needed to do another 18 months minimum.
I have been largely self employed during my time in France, but gave it up to to part time work on a farm. After that, I did some CESU, & latterly, 6 months part time at a campsite.
Until you have looked at your career and checked your entitlement and done the simulations, it is really not possible for you to get any further.
You will likely find you have entitlements from 4 different caisses, 1 for the self employment, 1 for the farm work, 1 for the campsite, and régime générale for the cesu. Each caisse will calculate your entitlements separately, but the simulation on the assuranceretraite plateform
Includes them all (well I assume it includes msa but not sure).
You will not receive anything automatically. You need to apply, and it can be quite a long process. I think they advise applying 4 months before your chosen retirement date.
I got my french pensions this year (I had waited for the main Carsat one an extra year because it paid more) but it took nearly three months to kick in from my birthday and I applied a good 5-6 months prior as demanded. Lots of too-in and fro-ing with paperwork, you need a good printer as they demand actual paper but eventually it came good. A lot depends on what you did and forhow long as to what they will pay and when according to your age. I get an automatic copy from carsat every month of what they have paid me and the other one is only paid in a lump sum once per year because it is less than €400 and they won’t pay monthly (Argirc-Arcco). You can always go and see your local caisse and speak face to face, I did that originally only to find the woman nasty and when ringing the head office in Rennes, got an apology and an immediate person designated to me.
I claimed my pension through Info Retraite and it was very easy although I did have to wait three months for it to be processed.
The OP needs to create an account on IR or l’Assurance Retraite and go from there, it will detail what he’s entitled to from what age he can start to draw his pension.
It does seem to depend which caisse you are dealing with. Some seem to make it easier than others. It sounds like the OP will have several to deal with.
I agree. I’ve got an age before I will retire but already I can see predictions and how they’ll change if I work for longer. It’s a great resource really.
Well I seem to be falling at the first hurdle, in that trying to connect through MSA, won’t work.
They are renowned for being universally shit on all fronts, but their website appears to be looking at me & shaking it’s head.
Why do you need to connect through msa? You can log on to assuranceretraite via a variety of methods including FranceConnect.
If you have never used the service before, I think you need to start by creatng your account. You cannot log in if you do not yet have an account set uo.
I tried creating a new account but was directed to France connect in order to do so.
MSA’s website is as useless as I remember it being when they were my allocated “caisse”.
As for accessing via the “impots” website, I can try but I think it will end similarly.
I don’t understand why you are so determined to use msa.
To access the pensions service via Franceconnect you can choose your impots login details, your ameli login details or I cannot remember what else. Do you not have have functioning access to any of those?
As far as functioning access is concerned, MSA is the only organisation for which I have regularly used France connect… therefore, it seemed the logical choice.
I will now try to set up an impots account today, & maybe an ameli,as I don’t recall ever having the latter…also I’m a little sceptical about creating a digital identity with YRIS (?)
MSA was a question of convenience, for no other reason than I’ve already mentioned.
Ifyou have usedyour msa id to get into everything else via FranceConnect, which I can well understand @Codfanglers , then I think the only way forward to to use msa id via FranceConnect to get into e.g. impots, create a a specific id there using your tax number and then use that account to get into your pension stuff.
I must admit that I have created individual ids on every one of these sorts of accounts as it has happened to me before than one of them doesn’t work with one of the others
I stopped in 2016.
As far as I’m aware, cfe et al was dealt with by my accountant…in fact, after recent dealings with the tax, I discovered that they only had her email address as the default way of contacting me FFS !
