Pension freeze, flat-rate reduction... Retirees in the sights of François Bayrou's budget

François Bayrou intends in particular to reform the tax exemption for professional expenses for retirees. — François Bayrou intends to reform the tax exemption for professional expenses for retirees. NICOLAS GUYONNET / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP

Retirement pensions will not be spared by the budget plan presented on Tuesday, July 15 by François Bayrou : the Prime Minister, who has the ambitious objective of saving 43.8 billion euros, intends to make French senior citizens contribute, and not just the most well-off among them .

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The "blank year" he announced includes, among other things, a freeze on pension benefits. If this measure is adopted, some 17 million pensions will not be automatically revalued on January 1, as usual.

Even if pensions are not reduced, this will still represent a loss of purchasing power during this period of rising prices. According to the French Economic Observatory (OFCE), quoted by " Capital ," while this measure could raise €3.7 billion, "nearly 10 million households whose reference person is retired" will lose "around 1% of their standard of living."

"Social justice"

Referring to this measure, François Bayrou spoke of a "significant but temporary and fair effort" .

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This is not the only measure that could affect retirees: those who benefited from the 10% tax deduction for professional expenses in the calculation of income tax will see this replaced by a flat rate of 2,000 euros.

Economy Minister Eric Lombard defended "a measure of social justice": "For all retirees who are at the bottom of the tax scale [...] their tax burden will decrease. And indeed, as compensation, the tax burden of retirees who earn more than 20,000 euros per year will be slightly increased." He did not specify how many retirees would be affected by this measure.