Do RSI payments help pension?

We moved to France in 2011 and have had a B&B since 2012 as a micro-entreprise, paying cotisations to the RSI. We anticipate retiring next year and closing the business after eight years of cotisations . Can we expect a small pension from them? Also do you know if our healthcare would revert to Cpam but be funded by the UK? A.T.

Published Modified

The RSI, today called the Sécurité Sociale pour les Indépendants, is not necessarily the pension organisation – it is usually the one dealing with social security.

To benefit from a pension, you would need to have contributed to an organisation (a caisse) such as CIPAV, the Caisse Interprofessionnelle de Prévoyance et d’Assurance Vieillesse des Professions Libérales.

The rules to benefit from a pension in France are complicated and vary according to your activity prior to retirement, and the caisse to which you contributed. In your situation, the best way to know what and how much you may be entitled to is to contact your pension caisse.

With regard to your question about reverting to UK-funded French healthcare, this is something that you will need to apply for if you have not done so already, through the E121/S1 system.

Whether Cpam will revert you automatically or not, we have no way of knowing, so the best thing to do is to write to them next year to tell them of your retirement and request the transfer (if you have already registered through the E121/S1), and if you have not already registered, then you will need to apply to the Department of Work and Pensions for your E121/S1 and register.

Otherwise you will have to pay for French healthcare under the normal rules.

Reader's query answered by Hugh MacDonald

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