Gradual Retirement: What Changes In 2024?

Gradual retirement allows one to engage in part-time work while receiving a portion of their retirement pension. Following the 2023 pension reform, the conditions for accessing this scheme have been modified. We invite you to discover what changes in 2024.

What does gradual retirement entail?

The "progressive retirement" allows, under certain conditions, to work part-time while receiving a portion of one's retirement pension.

More specifically, this scheme involves working part-time two years before the minimum retirement age, while drawing a portion of one's retirement.

An insured person nearing the end of their career can thus reduce their working hours but continue to contribute and accrue quarters and additional retirement points, which will be taken into account at the time of the final settlement of their retirement.

Who is eligible for the phased retirement?

Since the pension reform, published in the Official Journal on April 15, 2023, progressive retirement has been extended to new beneficiaries:

- civil servants;
- agents of special regimes (EDF, SNCF, RATP, etc.);
- liberal professions (doctors, lawyers, architects, notaries, accountants, etc.).

Note: permanent public service agents have been able to benefit from this scheme since August 12, 2023, for territorial and hospital civil servants. However, all active civil servants (police officers, prison guards, customs officers, nursing assistants, etc.), who can retire before the legal retirement age (62 years gradually raised to 64 years by 2032), are not eligible.

What are the requirements to be met?

To be eligible for gradual retirement, these various categories of workers must meet certain conditions in terms of quarters contributed and the duration of working time.

The sedentary civil servants, who make up about 80% of public officials, must have validated, as with employees, craftsmen, traders, and farmers, at least 150 quarters of contributions, including all basic retirement schemes combined.

To benefit from this scheme, civil servants and employees must work between 40% and 80% of full-time, and self-employed individuals must reduce their professional income by 20% to 60%.

With the 2023 pension reform and the gradual postponement of the legal retirement age (from 62 to 64 years), the age of access to gradual retirement will evolve at the same pace of an additional quarter per year. It will move from 60 to 62 years by 2032.

However, the 2023 pension reform does not change anything for people in gradual retirement before September 1, 2023, or born before September 1, 1961.

How does the reform make access to phased retirement easier?

With only 30,005 beneficiaries in 2023, the phased retirement is an option that is underutilized according to the government. That's why the 2023 reform aims to facilitate access to this scheme.

From now on, a private or public employer must justify their refusal to switch to part-time work and thus to phased retirement. They must prove in particular that the employee's or civil servant's switch to part-time work is not compatible with the company's economic activity.

Since September 1, 2023, the employer must also provide a response within two months following the request for phased retirement. A lack of response is considered implicit acceptance.