The Child Rearing Dropout (CRDO) provision of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) isn’t an actual benefit paid on its own, but it is an important provision nonetheless. The CRDO provision is generally helpful, but the actual impacts of it aren’t always fair. This article is the first of a three part series on the Good,… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Government Benefits
The differences between CPP and OAS
Old Age Security (OAS) and Canada Pension Plan (CPP) are hot topics because of all the attention on pension reform New CPP rules as of 2012 Talk about the new Pooled Registered Pension Plans Will they change Old Age security? From the questions I get, I realize many people are confused about the different government… Continue Reading
Voluntary deferral of OAS
As part of the 2012 federal budget, the government announced three changes to Old Age Security (OAS)program. The age of eligibility for OAS will gradually increase from age 65 to age 67. You will be able to defer taking your OAS pension by up to five years in order to receive a higher monthly pension.… Continue Reading
Understanding CPP survivor benefits
A question I’m often asked concerns how CPP benefits are calculated when someone is eligible for both a CPP retirement pension and CPP survivor benefits (commonly called a combined benefit). Many people seem to be aware that these combined benefit calculations are subject to some kind of maximum amount, but what that maximum amount is,… Continue Reading
How to calculate your CPP retirement pension
To calculate your CPP retirement pension, the first thing you should do is go online to the My Service Canada site and obtain your most recent CPP Statement of Contributions (SOC). Also on the My Service Canada site, you can request an estimate of your CPP benefits. These estimates are very accurate if you’ll be… Continue Reading
Contributing to CPP after age 65
It used to be that this decision was made for you. Once you started receiving your CPP retirement pension, you could not make further contributions to the CPP. If you weren’t receiving your CPP retirement pension, you had to continue making contributions until age 70. Since the new changes to CPP were implemented January 2012,… Continue Reading