Canada Pension Plan Amended
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
became operational in 1951. It pays flat-rate benefits to all persons in Canada ‘aged 65 and Social Security Abroad over without regard to need and subject only to a residence requirement. The program is financed out of general revenue and does not involve a payroll tax. This universal benefit, initially set Caruda Pension Plan Amended* at $40 per month, has gradually been increased through cost-of-living adjustments to its present Legislative changes in the Canada Pension level of $123.42 per person *per month (April Plan (CPP) enacted by Parliament in November 1075). In 1067, an income-tested supplement, 1374 came into force January 1, 1975. These known as the guaranteed income supplement, was recent amendments include (1) a gradual increase added to the pension under the Old Age Security in tile earnings ceiling for social security con- Act for persons with little or no income beyond a tributions over the next several years to restore flat-rate benefit. For a single person or a married parity with the average wage in industry ; (2) a person whose spouse is not a pensioner, the sup- midcning of coverage through lowering of the plementation of income may be as much as $86.57 floor on the amount of earnings exempt from per month (April 1975). social security contributions; (3) the elimination The second tier is a national contributory of the earnings test for retired persons aged 65 earnings-related pension program known as the and over; and (4) the equalization of benefits CPP. This program, which came into effect in for widowers and widows with children. 1066, covers all employees and self-employed Like other countries, Canada is currently faced persons residing in Canada outside the Province with a serious inflation problem and has had to of Quebec. It is financed by compulsory contri- review the procedures through which social secu- butions from employees, employers, and self- rity benefits are adjusted, especially to insure that employed persons. Tax-deductible contributions old-age, disability, and survivor benefits keep are payable on that portion of an individual’s pace with the increasing cost-of-living. The latest annual earnings falling between the “year’s basic changes mark the second time within the past 2 exemption” and the ‘Lyear’s maximum pensionable years that the Government has raised the wage earnings” (or ceiling)-in 1975, between $700 and ceiling for contribution purposes. The amend- $7,400 a year, respectively. The lower and upper ments are also the first, extensive overhaul made limits are both subject to adjustment for changing by the Government in the country’s basic wage- price and wage levels. related social security program since its incep- The Plan incorporated certain transitional pro- tion in 1966.’ visions, including the lowering of the pensionable age from 70 to 65 in one-year stages between 1966 and 1070. (This change coincided with the BACKGROUND lowering of ages under the Old Age Security Act.) The Plan also provided for the payment The Canadian Government maintains a two- of proportionately reduced retirement benefits tier old-age insurance program composed of a during the first 10 years of the program. Thus flat-rate and an earnings-related component. The a person who is able to qualify for a pension basic coverage is provided by the flat-rate com- during the transitional period 106’7-75 receives a ponent under the Old Age Security Act, which benefit equal to 2.5 percent of his average adjusted earnings per year ,for every year or fraction * Prepared by Robert W. Weise, Jr., Office of Research there of credited after 1966. After 1975, the retire- and Statistics, International Staff. ment benefit payable from age 65 will equal the ’ For an earlier analysis of the CPP, see Daniel S Gerig full amount of 25 percent of the employee’s and Robert J. Myers, “Canada Pension Plan of 1965,” Social Security Bulletzn, November 1965. For a summary average pensionable earnings. Computation of the of the various Canadian social security programs, see 25-percent replacement is based on the total salary Socral Security in Canada, Department of Health and Wel- up to the ceiling (including the $700 exemption), fare, 1974 See also Canadian Employment Benefits and Pension G&de Reports, Commerce Clearing House, Inc. Benefits are also provided for the disabled and 34 SOCIAL SECURITY their dependent children-and for t,he contributor’s reason, a joint Federal-Provincial review was surviving spouse and dependent children, which started in the spring of 1973 to study the pro- are likewise subject to adjustment for changes posed changes in Canada’s social security laws in the cost-of-living index.* The maximum benefit through working groups whose recommendations payable to a single retired person in April 1975 were then referred to the appropriate Federal amounted to $125.90 per month. Until the recent and Provincial ministerial levels for further con- amendments, payment of the old-age benefit was sideration and legislative action.4 subject to a two-step retirement test, similar to One of the central issues raised during the re- that applied in the United States before 1973. view was the role of the CPP in providing an A separate Quebec Pension Plan (QPP), adequate level of income protection in the case closely patterned after the Canada Pension Plan, of retirement, disability, or death. According to also became effective in 1966. Some differences the Government White Paper, tsvo points stood exist with respect to benefits, but the two plans out: (1) Even though the maximum 25-percent are being gradually adjusted to maintain basic replacement of average adjusted pensionable earn- comparability. The QPP is separately adminis- ings becomes payable in 1976, it will be two or tered. Reciprocity exists between the two plans, three decades before the great majority of retired however, so that if an employee covered by the workers will be gett,ing full benefits under the CPP undertakes employment in Quebec his con- Plan ; and (2) in the meantime a growing num- tributions to the QPP will produce the same ber of people are becoming, dependent upon benefits as if they had been made under the CPP means-tested benefits.5 and vice versa. The CPP, as originally designed in 1966, was intended to provide an income-security program that, when combined with the flat-rate pension under the Old Age Security Act and any private FEDERAL-PROVINCIAL REVIEW pension arrangements or savings, would keep re- At the beginning of 1970 the rising concern tired people out of poverty. Since basic minimum with poverty in Canada, as in a number of other protection is already provided under the flat-rate countries in the late 1960’s, led the Federal universal program, the replacement rate under Government to undertake a major reexamination the CPP and the QPP was set, after the lo-year of its total social security program. The objective transitional period, at the modest level of 25 of the study was to find new methods for reducing percent of average previous earnings. It was poverty and dependence upon social assistance expected that as hhese programs matured, cover- and to improve the basic income protection of age under these plans would reduce the extent to insured persons within the framework of existing which people would depend on the guaranteed social insurance programs.3 The review covered income supplement and social assistance for in- the main areas of social security: The pensions come support. under the Old Age Security Act, the CPP, family In practice, however, the trend during the first allowances, unemployment benefits, and means- 8 years under both plans-particularly since tested benefits under the provisions for the guar- 1972-has been toward increased dependence upon anteed-income supplement. income supplementation. Between 1966 and 1974, In Canada, constitutional responsibility for the total number of persons aged 65 or older legislation on income security is shared jointly receiving the universal flat-rate benefit rose 68 by the Federal Parliament and the legislatures percent; during this period, those receiving the of the Provinces. Amendments to existing legis- guaranteed income supplement in addition to the lation in this field, therefore, require approval old-age pension more than doubled. At the same at both Federal and Provincial levels. For this time, statutory limitations imposed on the replace- ment of earnings during the plans transitional ‘Unlike the social security program of the United period made it necessary for persons retiring States, the Canada Pension Plan provides no additional retirement insurance benefit to the wife of a retired insured man. 4See, for example, Social Security Bulletin, February ‘See Government White Paper, Income Security for 1972, pages 3133 and 37. Canadians, Department of Health and Welfare, 1970. ‘Government White Paper, op. cit., page 21. EULLETIN, AUGUST 1975 95 under these programs to seek income supplemen- I’ABLE L-Number of persons receiving benefits in Canada, by type, end of fiscal year, 1966-74 tation. Table 1 compares the number of persons - receiving income supplementation and the num- I- Retirement pension End of fiscal Old age ber of persons granted benefits under the CPP year (March)- secunty s CPP QPP and QPP during 1966-74. _- -- Currently, benefits paid out under the two 1966... __ _ _ _ _ _ __ _ (1) (9 1967-m ____ __ _ _ _ _ _ 605,240 2,969 wage-related plans account for only a small por- 1968 -_______ _-_-. 10,423 1969-......-..-.. 77% ii: 24,042 tion of the country’s total social security pay- 1970 ____ _ ______ __ s12:335 44.700 1971. __ __________ ments to persons aged 65 and over.