How are children taken into account for the retirement of the public official?

Verified 01 January 2026 - Public Service / Directorate of Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

You are a civil servant and have children. Your children are entitled to certain benefits when you retire. Some benefits are cumulative. We present you these different devices.

If you are contractor, your children are taken into account for your retirement under the same conditions as for a private sector employee.

FYI  

If you have contributed to different pension funds during your career, your children will be taken into account by one of these funds only, necessarily by the SRE: titleContent or the CNRACL: titleContent depending on your situation. Check with your pension funds before applying for your pension.

If you had or adopted one or more children before 1er January 2004, each child entitles you to 4 additional quarters that are taken into account in calculating your retirement pension.

These quarters additional are called bonification.

You are also entitled to this one-year enhancement for the following children if you have taken care of them before 1er January 2004 and if you have them raised for at least 9 years before their 21ste birthday:

  • Children from a previous marriage of your spouse
  • Children who have been delegated parental authority on your behalf or on behalf of your spouse
  • Children placed under your guardianship or that of your spouse, if the guardianship has been accompanied by effective and permanent custody of the child
  • Children taken into your household if you or your spouse justifies having assumed the effective and permanent charge

To benefit from this one-year bonus, you must have reduces or temporarily interrupts your activity to take care of the child under one of the following conditions:

  • Maternity leave or adoption leave
  • Parental Leave
  • Parental Presence Leave
  • Availability to raise a child under the age of 12
  • Part-time entitlement to raise a child at 50% for a continuous period of at least 4 months
  • Part-time entitlement to raise a child at 60% for a continuous period of at least 5 months
  • Part-time entitlement to raise a child at 70% for a continuous period of at least 7 months

Clarifications and supporting documents must be provided when applying for retirement.

If you have reduced or temporarily interrupted your activity for raising a child born or adopted from 1er January 2004However, these periods of reduction or interruption of activity are taken into account for the calculation of your pension insurance period.

Reminder

Your pension insurance term is recorded in quarters. Your number of quarters (of pension insurance) is taken into account when you retire to determine whether or not you are entitled to full rate retirement.

For example, if you are a sedentary public servant born in 1964, you must have 170 terms (42 years and 6 months) to qualify for a full pension.

The periods taken into account are the following:

  • Part-time entitlement to raise a child
  • Parental Leave
  • Parental Presence Leave
  • Availability to raise a child under the age of 12.

These periods shall be taken into account within the limits of maximum durations following:

Tableau - Maximum duration taken into account for pension insurance depending on the case of business interruption

Business interruption case

Maximum unworked period that can be taken into account for the duration of pension insurance

Part-time at 50% to raise a child under 3 years of age

6 quarters (1 year 6 months)

Part-time at 60% to raise a child under 3 years of age

4.8 quarters (1 year, 2 months, 12 days)

Part-time at 70% to raise a child under 3 years of age

3.6 quarters (10 months, 24 days)

Part-time at 80% to raise a child under 3 years of age

2.4 quarters (7 months, 6 days)

Parental leave up to 3 years of age (or 3 years from the adoption of a child under 3 years of age)

12 quarters (3 years)

Parental leave for a child adopted after the age of 3

4 quarters (1 year)

Parental Presence Leave

6 quarters (1 year 6 months)

Availability to raise a child under the age of 12

Birth or adoption of a single child : 12 quarters (3 years)

Simultaneous birth or adoption of 2 children : 24 quarters (6 years)

Simultaneous birth or adoption of 3 or more children : 32 quarters (8 years)

If these periods of reduction or interruption of activity are taken into account for no more than 6 months, this benefit may be cumulated with the additional quarters granted if your child was born from 2004 and after your recruitment into the public service.

Clarifications and supporting documents must be provided when applying for retirement.

You are entitled to 4 additional quarters which are taken into account when calculating your pension pension scheme if the following conditions are met:

  • You gave birth during your studies, before you were recruited into the public service
  • And your recruitment into the public service took place within 2 years of obtaining the diploma necessary to enter the competition

Clarifications and supporting documents must be provided when applying for retirement.

You are entitled to 2 quarters of pension insurance additional for each child born from 2004 and after your recruitment into the public service.

These quarters are taken into account when calculating your pension insurance term, which is used to determine whether or not you are entitled to a full pension.

From 1er in september 2026, one of these two quarters will also be taken into account in the number of quarters (called liquidatable quarters) used for the calculating your retirement pension.

This increase in the duration of insurance can be combined with the taking into account of periods of reduction or interruption of activity to raise a child born or adopted from 1er January 2004 only if these periods of reduction or interruption of activity do not exceed 6 months.

Clarifications and supporting documents must be provided when applying for retirement.

Additional pension insurance quarters

If you have raised a disabled child under 20 years with a disability at least equal to 80%, you are entitled to 1 additional pension insurance quarter per 30-month education period.

You can thus benefit from 4 quarters maximum.

These quarters are taken into account when calculating your pension insurance term, which is used to determine whether or not you are entitled to a full pension.

These quarters are also taken into account for the calculation of your retirement pension.

Clarifications and supporting documents must be provided when applying for retirement.

Early retirement

You can retire early if you complete the 3 conditions following:

  • You are the parent of a living child over one year of age with a disability of 80%
  • You have completed 15 years of effective service
  • You interrupted or reduced your work to care for this child while he was at your load

You can also benefit from early retirement for the following children if you have them raised for at least 9 years before their 21ste birthday:

  • Children from a previous marriage of your spouse
  • Children who have been delegated parental authority on your behalf or on behalf of your spouse
  • Children placed under your guardianship or that of your spouse, if the guardianship has been accompanied by effective and permanent custody of the child
  • Children taken into your household if you or your spouse justifies having assumed the effective and permanent charge

You must have reduces or temporarily interrupts your activity to take care of the child under one of the following conditions:

  • Maternity leave or adoption leave
  • Parental Leave
  • Parental Presence Leave
  • Availability to raise a child under the age of 12
  • Part-time entitlement to raise a child at 50% for a continuous period of at least 4 months
  • Part-time entitlement to raise a child at 60% for a continuous period of at least 5 months
  • Part-time entitlement to raise a child at 70% for a continuous period of at least 7 months

Periods during which you have not worked and have not contributed to any pension plan are treated as a break or reduction in activity.

Clarifications and supporting documents must be provided when applying for retirement.

If you had at least 3 children, the amount of your retirement pension from SRE: titleContent or CNRACL: titleContent shall be increased by 10% for your first 3 children and 5% per additional child.

However, the amount of your pension increased cannot exceed the amount of your last index treatment which was used to calculate your retirement pension. This index treatment is revalued in the same proportions as pensions.

The children who qualify for this pension increase are:

  • Your children born or adopted
  • Children from a previous marriage of your spouse
  • Children who have been the subject of a delegation of parental authority on your behalf or on behalf of your spouse
  • Children placed under your guardianship or that of your spouse, if the guardianship was accompanied by effective and permanent custody of the child
  • Children taken into your home if you or your spouse justifies having assumed the effective and permanent charge

To receive the increase in your retirement pension, you must have raised these children for at least 9 years, before their 16th birthdaye birthday or before the age at which they stopped you entitlement to family benefits (either 20 years or 21 years maximum depending on the benefit). This condition does not apply in the event of the child's death.

If you meet the requirements at the time of your retirement, you do not have to take any special steps to benefit from the increase in your retirement pension.

On the other hand, if, on the date of your retirement, you do not meet the conditions (9 years of education for the 3e child, or if the child was born or adopted after you retired), you must apply for an increase in your pension when the length of education condition is met.

The request is made using the form below:

Application by a State official, a magistrate or a retired military officer for an increase in his pension for children

You are entitled to an increase in your retirement pension, called parental override, if you are 63 years of age, more than number of quarters required to be entitled to a full pension.

Parental allowance may thus be granted to civil servants born on or after 1er April 1965 for which the minimum legal retirement age is 63 years or more.

You must also benefit from at least 1 quarter of free pension insurance (i.e. no contribution in return) for one of the following reasons:

  • You have been on parental leave for at least 3 months
  • Or you have reduced or interrupted your activity to raise one or more children born or adopted before 1er January 2004 or at your expense before 1er January 2004 for at least 9 years before their 21ste birthday
  • Or you gave birth during your studies, before your recruitment into the public service and you were recruited into the public service within 2 years of obtaining the diploma necessary to enter the competition
  • Or you gave birth from 1er January 2004 and after your recruitment into the public service
  • Or you have raised a disabled child under the age of 20 with a disability at least equal to 80%

If you meet these 3 conditions, your retirement pension is increased by 1.25% for each completed quarter from the age of 63.

Parental surcharge does not combine with overcoat (granted when you retire beyond the minimum retirement age by having a number of quarters greater than the number of quarters required to qualify for a full pension).

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