When you have spent your entire career at La Poste, or even part of it, the first difficulty when preparing for retirement is not calculating an amount. It’s knowing which fund to address. The applicable retirement scheme directly depends on the status under which one was recruited, and this status may have changed along the way.
Public servant or employee: the criterion that determines the entire retirement journey
La Poste employs two categories of staff under distinct retirement schemes. Civil servants, recruited before the transformation of the company into a public limited company, fall under the Civil and Military Pension Code of the State. Private law employees, on the other hand, contribute to the general social security scheme for their basic retirement and to Agirc-Arrco for supplementary retirement.
This distinction is not merely administrative. It changes the interlocutors, the calculation methods, the online portals to use, and the liquidation timelines. You do not address the same organizations depending on whether you are a civil servant or a contractual employee, even if you have worked in the same post office for twenty years.
To better understand the retirement of La Poste in France, you must first precisely identify your initial recruitment status, as it directs you to the correct scheme and the appropriate procedures.
Retirement of La Poste civil servants: state scheme and specific contributions
La Poste civil servants are attached to the State’s civil pension scheme. Their basic pension is calculated based on the gross indexed salary of the last six months, rather than the best twenty-five years as in the general scheme. This is a major difference that directly impacts the amount of the pension.
La Poste pays an employer contribution to the State to finance these pensions, according to a financial compensation mechanism specific to former public monopolies.
Civil servants must justify a minimum duration of service to open pension rights under the State scheme. If this condition is not met, the rights are transferred to the general scheme and IRCANTEC (Institution for Complementary Retirement of Non-Tenured State Agents). Additionally, all civil servants contribute to RAFP (Additional Retirement of the Public Service), a points-based scheme that covers bonuses and allowances not included in the calculation of the main pension.
Online portals for postal civil servants
Two digital spaces are important to know. The ENSAP portal (Secure Digital Space for Public Agents) allows you to consult your pension statements and perform simulations. The La Poste i-Retraite portal centralizes internal procedures: requests for career statements, information on end-of-career arrangements, and contact with the service dedicated to managing retirement files.
Access to these portals is generally done via FranceConnect, which simplifies authentication but requires prior activation of your digital identity.
Contractual agents and private law employees: general scheme and Agirc-Arrco
Agents recruited under private law contracts fall under the same scheme as any private sector employee. Their basic retirement is managed by Assurance retraite (CARSAT), and their supplementary retirement by Agirc-Arrco.
The calculation of the basic pension is based on the best twenty-five years of salary. The supplementary scheme operates by accumulating points, which are converted into pension at the time of departure. These two liquidations are distinct and must be requested separately.
For employees, the main online space is that of Assurance retraite (lassuranceretraite.fr), which provides access to the career statement, simulations, and tracking of the liquidation request. The Info Retraite portal (info-retraite.fr) aggregates acquired rights across all schemes and allows for a consolidated view, particularly useful in the case of a mixed career.
Mixed civil servant-employee career at La Poste: pitfalls to avoid
A common case among postal workers: having started as a civil servant and then switched to a private law contract during the company’s statutory changes. In this configuration, the retirement is liquidated by each scheme in proportion to the duration contributed. In practice, you receive a pension from the State scheme for the civil servant period and a pension from the general scheme for the employee period.
Feedback varies on this point, but coordination between schemes can create delays in payments, especially if the files are not submitted simultaneously. Anticipating procedures several months in advance remains the best protection against these delays.
Check your career statement before any request
Before launching a liquidation request, you should systematically check that all periods appear on the career statement of each relevant scheme. Part-time periods, long-term sick leave, or detachments can create gaps that need to be reported and corrected.
- Consult the statement on ENSAP for the civil servant part and on lassuranceretraite.fr for the employee part
- Compare the validated quarters with your own archived pay slips
- Report any discrepancies to the retirement management service (civil servants) or to CARSAT (employees) at least one year before the desired departure date
Progressive retirement and end-of-career arrangements at La Poste
Progressive retirement allows you to reduce your working hours while receiving a portion of your pension. Since decree n°2025-681 of July 15, 2025, the age for opening the right to progressive retirement is set at 60 years for La Poste employees, applicable from September 1, 2025.
This scheme concerns private law employees. The principle is simple: you switch to part-time work, and the retirement fund pays a portion of the pension proportional to the reduction in working hours. Quarters continue to be validated, which improves definitive rights at the time of full departure.
For civil servants, other arrangements exist, notably the Senior Adapted Part-Time (TPAS), negotiated internally by trade unions. The conditions and modalities of these arrangements can be consulted on the i-Retraite portal or through employee representatives.
- Progressive retirement (employees): accessible from age 60, switch to part-time with receipt of a portion of the pension
- TPAS (civil servants): adjustment of working hours at the end of the career, conditions negotiated internally
- Special End-of-Career Allowance (ASFC): complementary scheme whose eligibility criteria depend on the current agreement
The 2023 pension reform has gradually modified the legal retirement age and the required insurance duration according to the year of birth, for both civil servants and employees. Internal brochures prior to this date no longer reflect current rights. Any simulation must be carried out on the updated official portals to avoid unpleasant surprises at the time of filing the application.
