Survivor’s pension after a divorce in France: what the former spouse receives
Divorce does not cancel the survivor’s pension; it shares it, and remarriage changes the picture.
Checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy
A divorced former spouse keeps a right to the French survivor’s pension (pension de réversion) of their ex, under rules that vary from one scheme to another. Under the general scheme, the survivor’s pension is 54 % of the deceased’s basic pension; it is paid from age 55, subject to an income ceiling of €25,002 a year for a single person, and shared with the surviving spouse in proportion to the length of each marriage if the deceased remarried. Under Agirc-Arrco, the supplementary scheme for private-sector employees, it is 60 % of the deceased’s points, with no income test, but it is refused to a former spouse who has remarried; with no surviving spouse, it is proportional to the length of the marriage compared with the deceased’s insurance period, counted at most as 170 quarters. For a basic pension of €1,300 and a supplementary pension of €700, eighteen years of marriage and €16,000 of resources, the former spouse as sole beneficiary would receive about €880 a month.
Your survivor pension as a former spouse, per month
Estimated total, gross
€880
| General scheme (54%, share 100.0 %) | €702 |
| Agirc-Arrco (60%, share 42.4 %) | €178 |
| Reduced by the income ceiling | no |
With no surviving spouse, the Agirc-Arrco share is measured against 170 quarters of the deceased’s insurance (the maximum used).
General scheme and Agirc-Arrco side by side
| General scheme (Assurance retraite) | Agirc-Arrco | |
|---|---|---|
| Rate | 54 % of the basic pension | 60 % of the deceased’s points |
| Minimum age | 55 | 55, or none with two dependent children or a disability |
| Income | ceiling of €25,002 single, €40,003 in a couple | no condition |
| Former spouse remarried | no effect on the right | no survivor’s pension |
| Sharing with a surviving spouse | by length of each marriage | by length of each marriage |
| Former spouse as sole beneficiary | full survivor’s pension | marriage length ÷ deceased’s insurance period |
Three worked situations
| Situation | General scheme | Agirc-Arrco | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Former spouse is sole beneficiary | €702 | €178 | €880 |
| Deceased remarried for 12 years | €421 | €252 | €673 |
| Former spouse has remarried | €702 | €0 | €702 |
With no surviving spouse, the former spouse’s Agirc-Arrco share compares the quarters of marriage with the deceased’s insurance period, which the calculator takes as 170 quarters, the maximum for survivor’s pensions starting since 1 October 2025. If the deceased’s career was shorter, the real share is higher. Amounts are gross, before CSG, CRDS and Casa.
Applying
A survivor’s pension is never paid automatically to a former spouse: you must apply, online through info-retraite or to the deceased’s pension funds. Under the general scheme, an application made within the year after the death allows payment from the month after the death; otherwise it runs from the application. If you live abroad, you can still apply, as French pensions are payable outside France. The divorce itself is when these rights are indirectly negotiated, through the compensatory payment. With a legal separation, the separated spouse remains a spouse and keeps the rights of a surviving spouse. For the general scheme, a five-year marriage gives the same rate as a thirty-year one as long as the deceased did not remarry. Keep your marriage certificate, divorce judgment or agreement and the deceased’s pension details: the funds ask for them, and gathering them years later is often the slowest part of the application. Supplementary pensions from other schemes, such as those of the self-employed or civil servants, follow their own rules and must be claimed separately.