Act No. 2025-1403 on the financing of Social Security (LFSS) for 2026, adopted on 16 December 2025, was promulgated on 30 December 2025, following Constitutional Council Decision No. 2025-899 issued on the same day.
Below is an overview of its main measures, some of which will come into force on 1 January 2026.
Measures relating to social security contributions:
• In order to neutralise certain optimisation practices, the specific employer contribution payable on individual mutually agreed terminations and compulsory retirements has been increased from 30% to 40%, making such departures more costly for companies.
• Conversely, the flat-rate deduction of employer social security contributions on overtime has been extended to companies employing 250 employees or more. The amount of the deduction is thus set at €0.50 per hour, as is already the case for companies employing between 20 and 249 employees (the amount remains €1.50 for smaller companies).
• The calculation of the general reduction in employer social security contributions for companies operating in sectors whose collectively agreed minimum wages are below the statutory minimum wage (SMIC) will no longer be based on the SMIC, but on the applicable collectively agreed minimum wages, in order to encourage sectors to increase those minima and/or companies to raise wages.
• Companies employing at least 300 employees are required to periodically negotiate on the retention of senior workers. In order to make this obligation effective, a “malus” (penalty) on employer old-age and survivors’ insurance contributions is introduced in the absence of such negotiations or, failing an agreement, in the absence of an annual action plan.
• The increased rates of social security contributions applicable in cases of concealed work will be raised by 10 percentage points, meaning that for proceedings initiated from 1 June 2026 they will increase from 25% to 35% (and from 40% to 50% in respect of minors).
Measures relating to social benefits:
• Without repealing it, the LFSS suspends the 2023 pension reform known as the “Borne” reform in 2026 and 2027. The law therefore postpones the increase in the statutory retirement age for generations born between 1964 and 1968 (who will be able to retire one quarter earlier), with the target age of 64 applying only from the 1969 generation onwards. In addition, the increase in the contribution period required for a full pension is reduced by one quarter, but only for the 1964 and 1965 generations (subsequent generations will still be required to contribute 172 quarters). This suspension applies to pensions taking effect from 1 September 2026.
• The rules governing the combination of employment and retirement (cumul emploi-retraite – CER) will be tightened as from 1 January 2027. The scheme will be structured around three age thresholds:
(i) before the age at which pension rights open (ultimately 64), the pension will be fully reduced in proportion to professional and replacement income;
(ii) between the age at which rights open (64) and the age at which the reduction is cancelled (or automatic full pension rate, i.e. 67), if professional and replacement income exceeds a threshold (expected to be set at €7,000 per year), the pension will be reduced by half of the excess over that threshold;
(iii) from the age at which the reduction is cancelled (maximum 67), full accumulation will be permitted in order to allow the acquisition of rights to a second pension. In addition, the six-month waiting period before resuming or continuing an activity will be abolished.
• Sick leave certificates sent to the medical control service must now specify both the reasons for the leave and its duration. This duration may not exceed one month for an initial prescription and two months for a renewal, unless the healthcare professional justifies the need for a longer period.
• For incidents occurring from 1 January 2027, daily benefits payable in respect of occupational accidents and diseases (AT/MP) will be paid for a maximum period to be set by decree (a period of four years is currently envisaged).
• Each of the two parents of children born or adopted from 1 January 2026 (as well as children born earlier whose expected date of birth would have fallen on or after that date) will be entitled, from 1 July 2026, to a birth leave, once their entitlement to the existing birth leave, maternity leave, paternity and childcare leave, or adoption leave has been exhausted. During this leave, which will last one month or two months that may be taken in instalments, the beneficiary will receive daily social security benefits (IJSS), which are expected to be degressive.
• The procedure for recognising occupational diseases (maladies professionnelles – MP) will be amended. The current “main” system, which depends on the inclusion of a disease in an official schedule (creating a presumption of occupational origin), will be replaced by a reference to a decree (to be issued no later than 30 September 2026) setting out general diagnostic criteria for diseases, taking into account established scientific knowledge. Under the so-called “supplementary” procedure for recognising occupational diseases (so-called “off-schedule” diseases), the scope of intervention of the CRRMP (regional committees for the recognition of occupational diseases) will be refocused no later than 1 January 2027.
It should be noted that the Constitutional Council struck down the measure which, in order to comply with the case law of the Court of Cassation, sought to clarify the notion of “incapacity for work”, which conditions the payment of daily social security benefits on the inability to continue or resume not only one’s job but, more broadly, “any salaried or self-employed professional activity whatsoever”. The Council held that, as it was imprecisely drafted, this provision did not ensure the protection of the right to health protection and material security. Indeed, it could have resulted in an insured person being denied compensation where they were temporarily unable to perform their own job but physically capable of carrying out another professional activity, without taking into account, in particular, their personal situation and the reality of an alternative professional opportunity potentially available to them, including in light of the medical treatment they must undergo, even though the prescriber had not established the impossibility of ultimately resuming their job.