When a prison sentence leaves gaps in your pension

Spain has shown the way. France is right in the middle of it. And Luxembourg may follow suit. What is at stake? Unlike employees, the self-employed, recipients of unemployment benefits or even people travelling the world's oceans on ships flying the Luxembourg flag, people in prison in the Grand Duchy do not pay into the pension fund. And although many of them work behind bars, this does not count towards their pension later on, neither as compulsory insurance years nor as supplementary periods (which include, for example, years spent studying or bringing up children).

People in prison do not pay any social security contributions on their earnings for the work they do in prison, for which they are paid between 2.05 and 5.75 euros an hour.

The CSV/DP coalition wants to change this. Or at least have a closer look at the issue. The government programme announces an analysis of the "statut du travailleur détenu dans le contexte des contributions sociales". More concretely: The coalition wants to examine the extent to which it makes sense to have prisoners pay into the pension fund, accident insurance or health insurance. There is no timetable for this analysis, which was already started under the previous government, according to a written statement from the Ministry of Justice to the Journal in mid-September. "Among other things", the Ministry is planning "consultations with the Ministry of Health and Social Security". The "special features of the prison will be taken into account, as well as the fact that the state currently covers a number of costs for prisoners". The Ministry of Justice has also announced "detailed discussions and calculations".

Approximation to ordinary labour law in France

Our French neighbour is already one step ahead. Albin Heuman is the director of the Agence du travail d'intérêt général et de l'insertion professionnelle (Atigip), which was founded in 2018 and is also the driving force behind the reform that will come into force in 2022. The French government agency deals with "all issues relating to the professional integration of people under the administration of justice, whether they are in prison or at liberty under judicial supervision", according to Heuman, who describes the legal adjustments as follows: "The reform has two sides. Firstly, a more global reform of prison labour." It replaces the assignment of labour, as it is still at least formally provided for in Luxembourg legislation, with a type of employment contract, a legal framework that is not comparable to the general law, but is based on it, "with the idea that, by creating working conditions in prison that are closer to those that people will know after their release, they will be better prepared for their reintegration".