Pensions: the Case for Drastic Reform. Why and How to Quickly Unify the Three Dozen Schemes that Currently Exist in France

At the end of January, President Emmanuel Macron confirmed his intention to develop a framework law for reforming the French pensions system. A bill that was initially expected in spring should be presented at the end of the year, the aim being to finalize the reform by summer 2019 and, as far as possible, unify all the current schemes (there are around 40 of them) within a single points-based system rather than a system based on contribution years. Jacques Bichot has been calling for such a points-based system for a long time, and in this Forum he reminds us why and how it should be implemented in France, stressing the need to act definitively at a single stroke, not by stages. In so doing, he demonstrates, among other things, the advantages of the points-based pension system, the levers available for adapting its management to meet the country’s demographic and economic situation, how pensions will be calculated in such a system, and why a “big bang”-style reform makes sense. All useful advice and a welcome contribution to the debate in this period of intensive consultation among the social partners that began some weeks ago.