Figure of the month

Elena BASSOLI, economist, studied retirement behaviour by analysing the impact of a major Italian reform (Monti-Fornero, 2012): while maintaining the minimum number of years of contributions at 20, the minimum age for receiving a full pension was raised from 60 to 64, starting with the 1952 generation. Together with Ylenia BRILLI, Elena BASSOLI analysed the impact of this reform on women, who are more exposed to financial difficulties in retirement.

The quantification of the effect of the reform is based on the early retirement scheme offered to Italian women: a minimum retirement age of 57, after 35 years of contributions, with a specific pension calculation. The reform did not change this age, but at the cost of reducing the full pension by up to 30%. Has this penalty encouraged women to work until the age of 64? The study answers this question by means of a difference in discontinuities analysis, which compares the retirement age of women with 35 years of contributions according to whether they were born in 1951 or 1952. The database of retired women shows that, between 2011 and 2020, retirement was massively concentrated between the ages of 61 and 62 for the 1951 cohort, while the distribution was very spread out for the 1952 cohort. However, 47.22% of the latter retired before the age of 64 and the average retirement age has dropped from 61 years and 7 months to 60 years and 11 months. The reform has led many women to opt for early retirement, at the cost of a financial penalty estimated at 15% of their pension compared with the generation not affected.

Gradual reforms would probably have prevented so much use of this penalising exit option.

Leila BETTAYEB, anthropologist, looks at the health of Chibanis (in Arabic dialect "gray hairs"), retired immigrants (mostly from the Maghreb) who have worked in France and live in social housing in the northern districts of Marseille. Her work focuses on their health needs, when the literature suggests that they have difficulty accessing healthcare. Her monographic approach is based on questionnaires and measurements providing socio-demographic, medical, anthropometric and clinical data. In 2021, this study included 67 male volunteers (aged 73 to 82) followed up by the national association "Banlieues Santé".

Descriptive results show an average grip strength score of 26 kg, below the standard threshold (27 kg); more than half of these retirees are below this threshold. Specifically, 21 of the 37 former construction workers and 6 of the 8 former cleaning staff have a grip strength below the norm vs. 10 of the 22 retirees from other occupations. Thus, it was among those who had worked in manual occupations that muscular strength was weakest.

The question of a more global muscular impairment, sarcopenia (reduced muscle mass and strength), remains open at this stage. Other criteria of deteriorated health present in the data will be examined (undernutrition, polypathology, polymedication). Situations at the crossroads of these indicators reflect social and health vulnerability: the aim is to understand how the combination of last occupation and socio-economic factors (resources, housing, diet, relative isolation) contributes to these frailties, in order to better identify needs in terms of access to and use of healthcare.