Can I add my UK work years to a French pension?

Reader question: I worked for a few years in the UK before moving to France. Can these years count towards my French pension and help me retire earlier?

Under post-Brexit social security agreements between the UK and EU countries, periods worked in the UK can still be taken into account by the French pension authorities when assessing entitlement to a French state pension.

This is known as aggregation of insurance periods. It also applies where people worked in another EU country as well as France. 

In practice, the years worked in the UK are not usually added directly to the amount of your French pension itself, which will reflect the level of your salary, how many quarters you were paying social security contributions via work, and potentially certain reductions applied if you did not work the usual ‘full’ French career (around 42 years).

Rather, they may help reduce, or remove the penalties for a short career, which increase the greater the shortfall is.

As for retiring earlier, aggregation may reduce the number of quarters of paying in needed in France to receive a ‘full rate’ pension (without penalties), but it will not usually change the minimum legal retirement age of around 63. The latter is fixed for a certain age cohort.

To have UK periods recognised, you should normally mention your UK work history when applying for your French pension and provide your UK National Insurance number. 

You should also ask the French pension authorities to contact the UK authorities to obtain your contribution record.

You do not usually need to make separate arrangements yourself with the UK before starting the French pension application process.