TOWARDS THE END OF THE EXISTENCE CERTIFICATE

La fin du certificat d’existence

Retirees living in Abroad and receiving a French pension must complete an annual certificate of existence. If they fail to do so, payments will stop.

All the residents outside France but who are entitled to a French pension. They must complete a certificate of existence. As the name suggests, this certificate enables pensioners to prove that they are still alive. This system helps to limit fraud by avoiding the situation where, for lack of information, a pension is still being paid even though the beneficiary is deceased.

Si l’on comprend également la raison d’une telle démarche administrative, sa complexité est moins facilement justifiable. Le premier problème, est qu’une même personne peut avoir également à fournir plusieurs certificats d’existence. Soit autant que le nombre de caisses de retraite auxquelles elle est affiliée. Une fois rempli, le certificat doit être obligatoirement envoyé par courrier postal. Or, dans certains pays, le service postal peut prendre du retard. Les conséquences peuvent être lourdes.

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Towards paperless procedures

The process should be simplified. There will now be just a single certificate to send in," announces Stéphane Bonnet, Director of Union Retraite, a public interest grouping (GIP). It should also be possible to download this document and return it via a secure personal space. This will ensure that no one forgets to send it, and that no pension is ever paid out.

The procedure will be virtually dematerialized - it is, of course, essential to prove one's existence. This process will be simplified with the single certificate of existence. It will no longer be necessary for people affiliated to several schemes to go to the office several times a year.

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