Can I renounce French pension to get S1 benefit?

I moved from the UK to France and worked as a self‑employed farmer before retiring early. Can I claim a UK S1 form and use it to gain access to French healthcare cover on reaching UK retirement age and thus switch from being covered by the Mutualité Sociale Agricole (MSA) to being covered by the UK? I believe that this would reduce my social charges in France.

It is correct that having one’s healthcare covered by another EU/EEA state or Switzerland or the UK allows for reduced French social charge rates on investment and property income. A social charge exemption also exists on foreign pension income for residents of France who are not a burden to the French health system, as is the case with S1 holders. You say you are willing to forgo claiming your small French pension, if necessary.

It should, first, be noted that unless you are already claiming a French pension (or working in another field), former self-employed workers are now covered via the Puma (Protection universelle maladie) scheme, which gives healthcare by right of residency.

Cleiss, the official French-based experts on coordination of social security systems, stated that the ability to renounce a French pension in order to qualify for S1 coverage depends on whether the French pension scheme in question allows this. It would also depend, it said, on whether the UK is prepared to issue S1s to people who have renounced their right to a French pension.

With regard to the first point, MSA – as well as Cnav (the national body in charge of state pensions for most people who have worked in the private sector) – said, if you wish, you can effectively ‘renounce’ your pension by not claiming it. MSA said you could also explicitly put in writing that you are renouncing it, if you wish. MSA said that if you have claimed the pension, you can renounce it in writing within two months of notification that you will receive a pension but generally you cannot do it after that.

Cnav said you could ask for annulment in the two-month period by writing to the Commission de recours amiable of your pension body and you would have to pay back any money already received. It said you can also write at a later date to ‘renounce’ it and, if you do, you cannot later change your mind, and your payments will stop.

We asked the UK’s Department for Health if it is possible for someone who gives up the right to a French pension, or does not claim it, to ask for an S1 for French healthcare. 

We were initially directed to a website that states that if you receive pensions from both the country where you live and the UK, you cannot get an S1 since the country where you live is responsible for your healthcare. 

Official UK sources later clarified that the issue of giving up a French pension is purely a matter for France but they added that people should take advice before potentially giving up any entitlement permanently.

Essentially, people in France are entitled to have, and use, a UK S1 if they are not receiving a French state pension or similar eligible benefits entitling them to care via France. 

Note that there can be benefits of healthcare via France, including the right to a French EHIC, which can be used for free care on visits to the UK.