# Wife's French Pension



## Cator

When my 'stay at home' wife reached retirement age, she became entitled to a s.s. pension but only if she had no income exceeding the 600 euro per month. 

We put my redundancy payments in PEA's and her dividends came close to the minimum income. I wrongly assumed that dividends were her income so we wrote to the pensions who stopped the pension payments for her. Now, her PEA has lost a good amount of value and the dividends do not make up the minimum required.

Can I get them to reinstate the payments and has anyone had a similar experience?


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## Poloss

Cator said:


> When my 'stay at home' wife reached retirement age, she became entitled to a s.s. pension but only if she had no income exceeding the 600 euro per month.
> 
> We put my redundancy payments in PEA's and her dividends came close to the minimum income. I wrongly assumed that dividends were her income so we wrote to the pensions who stopped the pension payments for her. Now, her PEA has lost a good amount of value and the dividends do not make up the minimum required.
> 
> Can I get them to reinstate the payments and has anyone had a similar experience?


Just some details to clear things up, please Cator...

French retirement pensions are paid by CARSAT which is a different entity from the sécurité sociale
The amount of the pension is determined by the number of trimesters that contributions were paid and also your wife's salary when employed.
Pensions are paid without strings attached and don't vary depending on the household's various incomes.

Which is why I don't understand the 600€ limit - is it really a retirement pension or rather a benefit like ASPA which varies with income?
You can well pay income tax on dividends + pensions but apparently that's not your problem here.
There are 3 types of PEA and some can earn you tax rebates ...

I'm no expert in this field but perhaps with some more details, other forum members more knowledgeable could step in


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## Cator

Thanks for your comments Poloss. All I remember is that the CNAV contacted me when my retirement came up here in France and they told me that my wife who had not worked was also entitled to a pension but there were limits on her having other income. 

I can't remember if it was 600 or less. I thought that with the PEA being in her name, any income would be hers so we told them. All this goes back a few years but now that her PEA is much lower and my pension has not kept up with inflation I thought of looking at it again.


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## Poloss

There's something I still don't understand about the exact nature of your wife's pension - usually each individual person has to apply for their own retirement pension.
The fact that the CNAV attributed a pension to your wife who you say has not worked nor paid contributions seems strange.
Try to dig up the original notification of attribution so you can understand the precise conditions involved.
Was there a condition of an annual declaration of income to the CNAV ? 

Of course I was wrong about retirement pensions not being paid by the sécurité sociale as CNAV and CARSAT are SS spinoffs


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## BackinFrance

The only way I know that someone who has not paid into a pension in France is when their spouse (in certain circumstances z former spouse) dies. Iuu


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