Delaying CPP/OAS | Page 2 | General financial discussion | Discussion forum

@Alexandra

Suggest you reverify Dec 2024 payment vs Jan 2025.

There's a bunch of stuff online along the lines of this link (I know, it doesn't look very official), looks like maybe mid-year for OAS, March for CPP, there's some more dough coming to some low-income seniors.
https://artificesbogota.com/1400-2600-oas-cpp-payment-hike-for-seniors/

Alexandra, see my post just before yours, is that what you saw?

Don't believe it until one confirms with the Service Canada web site or another Government of Canada site.

It might be the same piece of @#$# who last year created a web page saying that CPP was going up by something like $1,000 or $2,000! One senior told me she and other senior friends were disappointed that the "announced" increase never showed in their direct deposited CPP payments.

She asked me why anyone would do such a thing. It is called click bait. Google will pay site owners for each eyeball that views a Google ad on a web page. Doesn't matter how the site owner gets people to visit the page.

I've looked around some more and, yes, it seems you'll have to break the bad news. I found the same AI thingy and some other sites saying it but nothing official on CRA or other gov't sites so it definitely appears to be bogus.

I don't really do online reading re financial stuff, I'm kinda surprised there are sites that have such detailed, blatant lies but I'm probably in a very small group of still-naive people who don't get that some sites do in fact boldly proclaim such blatant misinformation.

I think there are several items sowing confusion...

The CPP is indexed annually and takes effect in January.
(Canada Pension Plan)

The OAS is indexed quarterly for January, April, July and October.
(Old Age Security benefit)

GIS (if you qualify) is indexed quarterly but adjusted annually according to your income.
(Guaranteed Income Supplement)

SAFER (or other provincial incarnations of the federal rental support, if you qualify) is adjusted annually. Here in BC that's usually August. But it is also adjusted by any changes in income or rent on notification or tax assessment.
(Shelter Assistance For Elderly Renters)

AND what is most in the news and sometimes called the "Top-up" is the 10% additional increase in OAS pension payments for those 75 and older, which takes place a month after one's 75th birthday. After that, the usual quarterly indexing continues from the increased amount.

Of course, high-income clawbacks apply for some of the benefits.

More than one of these can take place on the same effective date. OAS and GIS come on a single cheque, GIS and SAFER each on their own cheques.

The GIS/OAS breakdown, for those calculating them individually, is at:

open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/dfa4daf1-669e-4514-82cd-982f27707ed0

This can be reached through the CRA site, so don't think the "open.data.ca" is a scam. I check each of my payments every month and phone when I have doubts.

The URL will change with the monthly release and when selecting marital status. The PDF version at the bottom is the easiest to use unless you're an accomplished spreadsheet wizard and can use the XLS version, whose column headers are so wide that only one can be seen at a time depending on your screen size and magnification; they are pivot tables and one can shrink the columns. Last summer, I left them feedback about this, which actually got them to restore the discontinued PDF versions, but they haven't yet addressed the XLS column widths.

Any campaign discussions about increased are speculative and won't even necessarily come true after elections.

RetirEd said
I think there are several items sowing confusion...

The CPP is indexed annually and takes effect in January.
(Canada Pension Plan)

The OAS is indexed quarterly for January, April, July and October.
(Old Age Security benefit)

GIS (if you qualify) is indexed quarterly but adjusted annually according to your income.
(Guaranteed Income Supplement)

SAFER (or other provincial incarnations of the federal rental support, if you qualify) is adjusted annually. Here in BC that's usually August. But it is also adjusted by any changes in income or rent on notification or tax assessment.
(Shelter Assistance For Elderly Renters)

AND what is most in the news and sometimes called the "Top-up" is the 10% additional increase in OAS pension payments for those 75 and older, which takes place a month after one's 75th birthday. After that, the usual quarterly indexing continues from the increased amount.

Of course, high-income clawbacks apply for some of the benefits.

More than one of these can take place on the same effective date. OAS and GIS come on a single cheque, GIS and SAFER each on their own cheques.

The GIS/OAS breakdown, for those calculating them individually, is at:

open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/dfa4daf1-669e-4514-82cd-982f27707ed0

This can be reached through the CRA site, so don't think the "open.data.ca" is a scam. I check each of my payments every month and phone when I have doubts.

The URL will change with the monthly release and when selecting marital status. The PDF version at the bottom is the easiest to use unless you're an accomplished spreadsheet wizard and can use the XLS version, whose column headers are so wide that only one can be seen at a time depending on your screen size and magnification; they are pivot tables and one can shrink the columns. Last summer, I left them feedback about this, which actually got them to restore the discontinued PDF versions, but they haven't yet addressed the XLS column widths.

Any campaign discussions about increased are speculative and won't even necessarily come true after elections.  

I'll be getting the claw back on OAS for the next couple of years for the first time. I've never received the supplement or any kind of GST rebates. Guess I'm fortunate. Did everything myself though without help from a partner or financial assistance from parents.

I'm helping granddaughter with down payment on condo in Vancouver so I won't be getting interest income from that amount next year. Worry though that things could go down in terms of real estate and especially with condos. She is dying to get out of her parent's suite. Who knows what is going to happen. Vancouver has always been unique it seems.

Alexandra said

I'll be getting the claw back on OAS for the next couple of years for the first time. I've never received the supplement or any kind of GST rebates. Guess I'm fortunate. Did everything myself though without help from a partner or financial assistance from parents.

I'm helping granddaughter with down payment on condo in Vancouver so I won't be getting interest income from that amount next year. Worry though that things could go down in terms of real estate and especially with condos. She is dying to get out of her parent's suite. Who knows what is going to happen. Vancouver has always been unique it seems.  

RetirEd said
Yes indeed, I often get questions from friends about assorted clickbait about supposed "new benefits" that are either scams or old news about things years past.

CAD: I completely agree with you about promotional sites. I live by the mantra of "Everything on the internet is a lie." What I have contributed here is from the perspective of one who receives the above four benefits; I provided one CRA reference and will happily provide more if anyone wants a more specific one. The complete range of CRA tables and info sheets is too much for one person to try to summarize, and anyway the CRA stuff is all public.

Alexandra: congratulations on doing so well that you hit the clawbacks! :^)  

RetirEd: talking about the "SAFER" program you mentioned in last post.
I do paper tax returns for a couple of elderly low income seniors. Starting in 2023, the rental subsidy from them must now be reported as income (social assistance payments),and is included as Net income on line 23600 on their tax return. So this extra income affects their GST/HST quarterly payments and other one time payments. This additional income in many cases can be over $3000.