Entitlements are accrued either on the basis of (contribution-liable) air crew employment, or when periods off work are credited to your account free of charge or through member buyback.

Contributions can also be paid retroactively on periods of employment not yet credited to the member’s account.

 Periods taken into account

The French transport code lists the types of period taken into account for retirement (article R6527-28). The main types are as follows:

• Periods of actual employment in civil aviation as an air crew member (standard contributions)
• during which the insured was paid all or part of his/her salary (standard contributions, payment of contributions the following year or buyback)
• Prescribed medical leave with compensation from a compulsory providence scheme (standard contributions, payment of contributions the following year or buyback)
• Periods of military service, compulsory statutory period, if the member completed 20 years in civil aviation (buyback or free credit) or beyond the statutory period completed as an air crew member (buyback)
• Periods of combat service capped at half of the length of the member’s career in civil aviation (free credits)
• Various types of period off work as an air crew member, listed by decree. These include parental leave and training leave (buybacks)
• Periods used to acquire a qualification as a professional air crew member (buyback)
• Quarters in education capped at 12, eligible for buyback under France’s general Social Security scheme, without exceeding the required length for a pension with no rate reduction (buyback)
• Maternity leave (buyback or free credit)
• Paternity leave (buyback or free credit)
• Unpaid time off work when working on an alternating pattern (buyback or free credit)
• Parental leave taken through the alternating work-leave program (buyback or free credit)
• Pre-retirement with FNE payments (buyback)
• Periods of unemployment with benefits following termination of an air crew member’s contract (UNEDIC contributions and/or buyback)
• Periods of partial employment (free credit)

How are they accrued?

Through the payment of standard contributions by the employer

A member’s salary is liable to contributions:

• from the first euro to 8 times the French Social Security ceiling, for the pension fund (“Fonds de retraite”) and the insurance fund (“Fonds d’assurance”),
• from the first euro to the value of the French Social Security ceiling (“Fonds de majoration”).

Through the payment of contributions by the member

Periods of temporary prescribed medical leave and prescribed medical leave with compensation from a compulsory providence scheme, from January 1st, 2012, can be credited or completed by payments of contributions during the following calendar year.

Through free credits to the member’s account

Periods off work which are eligible to be credited free of charge under CRPN’s retirement pension scheme are listed under the French transport code and detailed in our fact sheet entitled “Buybacks and free credits”.

What you gain from free credits to your account

Periods credited to your account free of charge will lengthen your career and reduce or even cancel out any rate reduction that may apply to your pension entitlements. However, except for certain credits for military service, these periods will have no effect on the amount of your entitlements.

How to apply

For periods off work prior to 2020, you will need to submit the required documentation according to the
same rules as for buybacks and contribution payments (please see below : What documentation do I need to submit ?).

Periods off work from 2020 are credited free of charge based on employer reports. You have no application or documentation to submit, unless you are applying for early crediting in connection with a claim for entitlements.

Through buyback by the member

Periods off work which are eligible for buyback under CRPN’s retirement pension scheme listed under the French transport code (completed by decree) and detailed in our fact sheet entitled “Buybacks and free credits”.

What you gain from a buyback (or payment of contributions)

Through a buyback or payment of contributions, you may be able to lengthen the career you have accrued, reduce or cancel out any rate reduction when you claim your entitlements, and/or increase the amount of your award. Indeed, periods for which you have paid contributions are taken into account when your entitlements are calculated.

How to apply

Buybacks can be carried out either before age 50, or shortly before submitting a pension claim, e.g. at most 6 months prior to the effective date for a claim of all entitlements. Contributions can be paid at any time during the calendar year following the periods for which payment is being made.

If requested, we will draw up a buyback or contribution payment simulation on the basis of the documentation you have submitted for each period. This simulation will show how any buyback or payment of contributions will affect your theoretical monthly award, as well as the deadline for payment. If we do a buyback or contribution payment simulation before you have reached age 50, we will not take account of any rate reduction which could lower your theoretical award.

To ensure that buybacks are actuarially neutral/strong> pursuant to the French transport code, buybacks are calculated based on:

• the point in the member’s career when they are carried out (before the member’s 50th birthday or shortly before they claim all of their pension entitlements),
• the type of period being bought back, if the buyback is carried out before age 50,
• a reference basis for the application of contribution rates if the buyback is carried out before age 50, or based on the pension increase that will result from the buyback, if it is carried out shortly prior to claiming all pension entitlements,
• age, which is taken into account using an actuarial percentage or weighting factor

Download the buyback or free credit simulation request form.

What documentation do I need to submit?

Below you will find the required documentation ⁽¹⁾ for the types of periods that are most frequently applied for:

• Maternity and paternity leave and, and, from 16 December 2021, adoption leave: a certificate from your employer ⁽²⁾ specifying the type and dates of each period being applied for, and a copy of your family record book (“livret de famille”)
• Alternating periods off work: a certificate from your employer ⁽²⁾ specifying the type and dates of each period, a copy of the amendment(s) to your employment contract specifying your alternating work pattern, and a signed statement of non-payment of contributions to another retirement pension scheme. Download the form to apply for your periods of alternating work – alternating parental leave to be credited to your account
• Periods of parental leave taken through the alternating work-leave program: a certificate from your employer ⁽²⁾ specifying the type and dates of each period, a copy of the amendment(s) to your employment contract pertaining to each of these periods, a copy of your family record book (“livret de famille”), and a signed statement of non-payment of contributions to another retirement pension scheme. Download the form to apply for your periods of alternating work – alternating parental leave to be credited to your account
• Periods of military service: your military service record (“état signalétique et des services”) or a copy of your military identification and career booklet (“livret militaire”), a signed statement that these periods were not accrued under another scheme or, for military service beyond the statutory period, a signed statement of non-entitlement to a pension. For military service beyond the statutory period, you will need to submit a certificate from the military authority under which you served, certifying that the military period did not entitle you to a pension. Download  the application form for periods of military and combat service to be credited to your account
• From 16 December 2021, reclassification leave or mobility leave: a certificate from your employer ⁽²⁾ specifying the type and dates of each period being applied for.

(1) To note, for free crediting :

• For periods off work prior to 2020, you will need to submit the required documentation according to the same rules as for buybacks and contribution payments (please see above).
• Periods off work from 2020 are credited free of charge based on employer reports. You have no application or documentation to submit, unless you are applying for early crediting in connection with a claim for entitlements.

(2) Most Air France certificates are already in our possession.

You can view the comprehensive list of required supporting documents for each type of period off work when you download the Application for a buyback or free credit estimate and list of required supporting documents.

What are the deadlines?

Validations by payment of contribution, buyback or free validation are only possible when the activity for the year in question has itself been validated, and imperatively before liquidation of entitlements.

Paying contributions or doing a buyback may be fiscally advantageous (you will need to check with your tax office in France).To ensure that our Career and Benefits department (“service Carrière et Prestations”) can process your application during the current fiscal year, you will need to submit your application to pay contributions or your buyback application before November 15, and submit your payment before December 20. Beyond those dates, we cannot guarantee that your application will be processed during the current fiscal year.

Periods of paid unemployment: a special case

Periods of unemployment with benefits from January 1st, 1997, due to termination of an air crew member’s employment which had generated CRPN contributions, can be credited to the air crew member’s account free of charge, taking account of the total length of the period and a percentage of your salary for the period, on the basis of UNEDIC contributions.

Please send us the yearly statement of unemployment benefits you will have received from France’s unemployment office “Pôle Emploi.”

If UNEDIC has paid us contributions for your periods of unemployment and these periods are eligible to be credited to your account, we will automatically notify you of your entitlements when these periods are credited to your account, during the 2nd half the year following the year in which these periods occurred. If you qualify for a buyback, according to your age, an additional buyback proposal will be uploaded to your personal account or sent to you by standard mail.

To learn more, please refer to our page entitled “If you have periods of unemployment.”