Law no. 2026-470 of 11 June 2026 ; Order of 19 June 2026 approving Amendment no. 2 of 10 April 2026 to the unemployment insurance agreement ; Unédic fact sheet, July 2026
As reported in our June issue, the social partners agreed on 25 February 2026 to shorten the period for which unemployment benefits are payable after an individual mutual termination (rupture conventionnelle individuelle). The law that was required to allow this was published on 12 June 2026, and the corresponding amendment to the unemployment insurance agreement was approved by ministerial order on 19 June 2026. The new rules came into effect from 1 September 2026. They come in addition to the increase, on 1 January 2026, of the employer’s contribution on mutual termination payments from 30 % to 40 %.
The reform changes nothing in the mutual termination procedure itself, the statutory termination payment or the administrative approval (homologation). It operates downstream, on the benefits paid by the public employment service (France Travail).
For job seekers whose last contract ended by individual mutual termination, the maximum benefit period is now :
- 15 months for those under 55 (compared to 18 months for other forms of termination) ;
- 20.5 months for those aged 55 and over (compared to 22.5 months at 55 or 56 and 27 months from 57 for other forms of termination).
Higher limits continue to apply in the French overseas departments. The decisive date is the date on which the contract ends, as fixed in the termination agreement, not the date of signature or of approval, meaning that an agreement signed before 1 September 2026 with an end date on or after that day falls under the new rules.
Two provisions soften the impact of this measure. Job seekers aged 55 and over may ask France Travail to extend their benefits up to the ordinary maximum ; the decision will be taken after a review of their job search efforts or of the career project they are pursuing. And collective mutual terminations (rupture conventionnelle collective), organised by collective agreement, remain outside the cap and subject to the ordinary rules.
