Pensions: Full Steam Ahead to the Unified Scheme!

Following on from the opening Forum article in this issue by Jean-Claude Angoulvant on the pension reforms that are currently in the pipeline, Jacques Bichot, whose thoughts on this subject we have published regularly, calls for the shift to a unified scheme to be speeded up in France. A reform of this scope actually has to be undertaken as early as possible in a presidential term. But in order that the future unified pension scheme can operate simply, without obviating the need to take account of the specifics of different occupations and careers, he suggests that use be made of the (non-state) pension funds. These are, in his view, the appropriate instruments for developing the tailor-made options which make it possible to respond to these particularities and to support the process of unifying the various pension schemes.