Future French retirees are impatient to retire, despite confusion about the process and changing attitudes on the legal retirement age, research from Odoxa has found.

The research, conducted on behalf of MIF, showed that many future retirees are optimistic about the future, with 60 per cent looking forward to retirement, and 85 per cent hailing retirement as the start of a new life, full of projects.

However, 54 per cent expect their financial situation at retirement to be worse than that of their parents.

In addition to this, almost all future retirees (84 per cent) anticipate a decline in their purchasing power when they retire, predicting an average 32 per cent decrease in purchasing power.

Even amongst the 56 per cent that felt their retirement would be sufficient, 42 per cent said that this was based on the condition that they had managed to build up a supplementary pension.

This uncertainty has prompted action, however, as the research found that, convinced that their mandatory pension alone will not be enough, 65 per cent of future retirees are putting money aside and 62 per cent have already taken out a savings product.

However, these figures masked significant social inequalities, as 83 per cent of executives have at least one retirement savings product compared to 58 per cent of workers and 38 per cent of members of the most modest households.

In addition to this, the research showed that, despite a "significant" increase in the creation of savings to prepare for retirement over the past ten years among 45-64 year-olds, disparities remain, as while 76 per cent of members of the most well-off households have recourse to it, this is only the case in 39 per cent of the most modest households.

And despite the push towards supplementary savings, more than half (56 per cent) felt that preparing for retirement is not easy and, despite optimism for what retirement could hold, more than a thid (37 per cent) said that stopping work worries them.

It also found that 37 per cent of working people aged 45 to 64 fear experiencing a period of unemployment at the end of their professional career.

The research suggested that these concerns are driven by a strong lack of understanding of how retirement works and a lack of financial culture, as the research found that 52 per cent of future retirees have little understanding of the pension system.

With the exception of career statements, none of the retirement information materials were consulted by the majority of respondents.

In addition to this, 61 per cent of respondents admitted to feeling poorly informed regarding the administrative procedures required for pensions, while 62 per cent were unsure of the contracts needed, and 72 per cent felt uninformed about the solutions put in place for the prevention of dependency.

Disparities were again seen here, with 61 per cent of executives claiming to have a higher-than-average level of understanding.

Specific concerns were raised for those nearing retirement, as the research found that less than a third (30 per cent) of 45-64 year olds know their replacement rate and 55 per cent have little understanding of how reversion works.

And these concerns are set to grow in future, as 35 per cent said that they believe that their children will have an even worse financial situation than theirs when they retire, while less than a fifth (19 per cent) believe it will be better.

This comes amid a challenging time for the pension system in France, as France’s long-running pension dispute escalated on Monday night (23 June) after negotiations between trade unions and employers collapsed, prompting Prime Minister, François Bayrou, to call an emergency meeting this morning (24 June).

However, the research showed that the recent pension reform has had an impact on public opinion, and the acceptability of the shift in the legal retirement age has gained ground.

According to the survey, 45 per cent of future retirees today said they feel able to continue working full-time after age 62, compared to only 30 per cent who shared this opinion in 2023.

In addition to this, 47 per cent of future retirees even said that they would like to be able to work after retirement, even part-time.

Commenting on the findings, MIF director general, Olivier Sentis, said: "The French, focused on their retirement date, have only a vague idea of ​​the financial resources they will have at their disposal. Their replacement rate is still poorly understood, and the means to supplement their pensions remain underdeveloped.

"Yet, many solutions exist. Faced with a system perceived as complex and growing concerns about purchasing power, the challenge is to raise awareness and give everyone the means to financially prepare for this new stage of life with confidence."

---