Old Age Security (OAS) is the basic building block of Canada’s retirement income system. Canadians build on that foundation, saving for their retirement with benefits from the Canada or Quebec Pension Plan, a workplace pension if they’re lucky enough to have one, and private savings.
But now Prime Minster Harper says OAS is unsustainable and will not be able to accommodate the retirement of the baby boom generation over the next 20 years. Subsequently, the government is now considering controversial reforms to pension programs—including raising the age of eligibility for OAS from 65 to 67.
Pension experts don’t agree. Old Age Security: Can We Afford It?, a new CCPA technical paper by Monica Townson, sheds some light on the negative impact of cuts to Canada's pension programs and also addresses its sustainability, given government claims that OAS costs will be soon be “unaffordable.”
Click here to read the full report.
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— Polly Ng, Next Up graduate