Equal Opportunities for Older Women

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Survivors' pension (pension de réversion) within the Supplementary Old Age Insurance Schemes
Relevant authority:

Supplementary Old Age Insurance Schemes
Measure:

Social Welfare Legislation
Target group:

Nicht wiederverheiratete Witwer und Witwen einer/s Sozialversicherten einer Alterszusatzkasse.
Target:

- To guarantee the surviving marital partner a minimum income, originally reserved for widows but now extended to include to men, within the framework of equality before the law;
- To compensate for the income of the marital partner, which has been lost partially or fully through the death of that partner; this kind of loss mainly effects women who are still totally dependent on their husbands' income.
Detailed description:

The principle is the same as with state old age insurance, though there are considerable divergences: here there is no systematic annual up-valuation; the benefits amount to 60% of the pension paid to the deceased by the supplementary insurance, and (apart from the age condition) the qualification conditions are much less restrictive than the state old age insurance:

- Minimum age for the "ARRCO-schemes" (Employee supplementary insurance schemes): without exception 55, minimum age for the "AGIRC-schemes" (Supplementary insurance schemes for senior employees): generally 60, under certain conditions 55; these age conditions do not apply when the recipient still has to support two children, or in the case of invalidity.
- There are no income conditions and the number of years of marriage also play no role.

Special conditions:
- in the case of re-marriage, whenever that may be, the survivors' pension no longer applies, without exception.
- the survivors' pension increases when the recipient still has a child to support (ARRCO-schemes) or the marriage produced at least three children (AGIRC-schemes).

Changes have been made since 1998.

Generally speaking, the access conditions and the computation rate of the supplementary insurance schemes for survivors are more advantageous.
Source of information:

Marie-Annick Prigent, 1992 : "Le Veuvage. Caractéristiques démographiques et évolutions sociologiques" ("Widowhood. Demographic characteristics and sociological developments"), in Les Entretiens de la CIPC 1991(Caisse Interprofessionnelle de Prévoyane des Cadres - Interprofessional Insurance Scheme for Senior Employees), pp. 81-106 ;

Notre Temps, anonym, 1998 : "La réversion des retraites complémentaires" ("Survivors' pension in the Supplementary Insurance Schemes"), in Notre Temps, No. 340, p. 91
Contact:

ARCCO (Association pour le Régime de Retraite complémentaire des Salariés - Association of Supplenentary Pension Schemes for Employees), 44, Boulevard de la Bastille, F 75012 Paris

AGIRC (Association Générale des Institutions de Retraite des Cadres - Association of Supplementary Pension Schemes for Senior Employees), 4, Rue Leroux, F 75016 Paris
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2001-04-25