Retirement of the employee: what is the discount?
Verified 23 January 2025 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)
The haircut is a reduction that is applied to the amount of retirement pension basic paid by the Pension Insurance when the employee retires without entitlement to a retirement full rate. We will detail the conditions of application and calculation of this reduction.
The amount of your basic retirement pension paid by Pension Insurance is subject to a discount, i.e. it is reduced, when you retire without the right to a full pension.
As a private sector employee, when you retire, you are entitled to:
- To a basic retirement pension from Pension Insurance
- And a supplementary retirement pension from theAgirc-ArcoAgirc-Arco : General Association of Employee Pension Institutions - Association for the Supplementary Retirement Scheme for Employees.
Your basic retirement pension from Pension Insurance is granted to you at full rate mainly in one of the following 2 cases:
- You're retiring before age 67 by having a specified number of quarters of pension insurance
- Or you're retiring at age 67No matter how many quarters of pension insurance you have.
If you retire before age 67However, the number of quarters of pension insurance required to qualify for a full-rate pension depends on your year of birth:
You were born: | You can retire from: | Number of quarters required to have the full rate |
|---|---|---|
Between 1er January 1958 and December 31, 1960 | 62 yrs | 167 (41 years 9 months) |
Between 1er January 1961 and August 31, 1961 | 62 yrs | 168 (42 years) |
Between 1er September 1961 and December 31, 1961 | 62 years and 3 months | 169 (42 years 3 months) |
1962 | 62 years and 6 months | 169 (42 years 3 months) |
1963 | 62 years and 9 months | 170 (42 years 6 months) |
1964 | 63 yrs | 171 (42 years 9 months) |
1965 | 63 years and 3 months | 172 (43 years) |
1966 | 63 years and 6 months | 172 (43 years) |
1967 | 63 years and 9 months | 172 (43 years) |
From 1er january 1968 | 64 yrs | 172 (43 years) |
FYI
If you have worked under other statuses than as an employee (public servant, farmer, liberal profession, etc.) and have consequently contributed to several pension funds, this is your total insurance duration, all schemes combined, which is taken into account in determining whether or not you are entitled to full-rate retirement pensions.
If you retire before age 67 without the required number of quarters, you are not entitled to a full rate pension.
In this case, the amount of your retirement pension is reduced according to the number of quarters you are missing.
This reduction is the discount.
If you retire at age 67However, you are entitled to a full rate pension, regardless of the number of quarters of pension insurance.
Your pension is calculated based on the number of quarters you have, whatever it is.
If you have fewer quarters than you need to qualify for a full-rate pension before age 67, the discount is not applied to you.
FYI
You may be entitled to a full-rate, no-discount, basic pension from Pension Insurance before age 67 in some special situations (for long career, disability, disability, etc.).
The amount of your Arco-Agric Supplementary Retirement may also be reduced or increased depending on your age of departure.
The number of missing quarters retained by Pension Insurance is the smaller of the following 2 numbers:
- Number of missing quarters between your retirement age and 67 years of age
- Or the number of quarters missing between your number of quarters at the date of retirement and the number of quarters required to qualify for a full rate pension.
The number of quarters obtained is rounded up.
The maximum number of missing quarters taken into account is limited to 20.
Example :
You were born on the 1ster July 1963. You can retire from age 62 and 9 months. To be eligible for a full-rate pension, you must:
- Either have 170 quarters ( 42 years 6 months)
- Either wait for your 67th birthday (at 1er July 2030).
If you decide to leave on 1er july 2026, at age 63, having only 159 quarters (39 years 9 months)
- You are missing 16 quarters between your retirement age and 67 (number of quarters between 67 and 63)
- You are missing 11 quarters between your number of quarters at retirement (159) and the number of quarters required to qualify for a full rate pension (170).
That's the best number, 11 quarters.
The amount of your basic retirement pension from Pension Insurance depends in particular on the average of your gross wages over your best 25 years.
When you are entitled to a full rate pension, your retirement pension is calculated on the basis of 50% of this average annual gross salary.
However, if you are going to retire before age 67 without having the number of quarters of pension insurance required to qualify for a full rate pension, this rate of 50% is reduced by 0.625% by missing quarter.
So, if you retire before age 67 without having the required number of pension insurance quarters, the rate that is applied to your average annual gross salary, called a discount, is as follows:
Number of missing quarters | Retirement rate |
|---|---|
1 | 49.375% |
2 | 48.750% |
3 | 48.125% |
4 | 47.500% |
5 | 46.875% |
6 | 46.250% |
7 | 45.625% |
8 | 45,000% |
9 | 44.375% |
10 | 43.750% |
11 | 43.125% |
12 | 42.500% |
13 | 41.875% |
14 | 41.250% |
15 | 40.625% |
16 | 40,000% |
17 | 39.375% |
18 | 38.750% |
19 | 38.125% |
20+ | 37.500% |
Example :
Let's go back to the previous example: you were born on the 1er July 1963. You decide to retire at age 63 on 1er July 2026 by having only 159 quarters instead of the 170 required to qualify for a full rate pension. The number of missing quarters used is 11.
Your pension will be equal to: Average gross annual salary x 43.125% x 159 / 170
You can find out how many quarters of pension insurance you have by consulting your career record in your pension account, available on the official pension info website.
Your career statement summarizes, in a chronological manner, all your different professional periods.
You can print and download your career record.
You can also perform a simulation the amount of your pension at different ages, full or not, based on the data known to your pension funds.
From 55 yearsHowever, you can report to your pension funds the anomalies in your career statement and ask for their correction: missing jobs, inconsistencies, etc.
Your pension funds are directly informed.
You can follow their treatment on your pension account:
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