When to Start Your CPP or QPP Pension: The Decision Most People Make by Default
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By Jose Salloum, Financial Security Advisor (Conseiller en sécurité financière) | September 2026
This article is general financial education about the timing of the Canada Pension Plan and Quebec Pension Plan retirement pensions. It is not a recommendation and it states no dollar amount, because the amounts are reset every year by the administering authority. The adjustment percentages and ages described here were read from Service Canada and Retraite Québec on 5 September 2026 and are current as of that date; program rules change, and the current figures for your own record must be confirmed with the administering authority. Nothing here is tax advice, and the tax effect of pension income in your circumstances belongs with a qualified tax professional. Your own situation must be reviewed with a licensed insurance professional. This article is educational only.
In plain language: this is general education, not a recommendation. What is right for you depends on circumstances we have not seen, and that is what a first conversation is for.
Key Takeaways
- The decision is permanent. The adjustment applied when the pension starts stays applied for life, and it is not revisited later, which is why it deserves more thought than it usually gets.
- Under the Canada Pension Plan the pension can start as early as 60 and as late as 70. It is reduced by 0.6 per cent for each month before 65, to a maximum reduction of 36 per cent, and increased by 0.7 per cent for each month after 65, to a maximum increase of 42 per cent at 70.
- The Quebec Pension Plan is not the same plan. It can be deferred to 72 rather than 70, and the increase continues to 58.8 per cent at that age, which is a materially different decision.
- Old Age Security is a separate program with its own timing decision: standard at 65, deferrable to 70, increased by 0.6 per cent for each month deferred to a maximum of 36 per cent.
- The honest answer depends on four things: how long you expect to need the income, what other income you have and when, your health, and whether you need the money now. There is no age that is correct for everyone.
Most people do not decide when to start their public pension. They reach an age at which somebody mentions it, or they stop working and the application seems like part of the paperwork, and the decision gets made in the same afternoon as a change of address. Which is remarkable, because it may be the largest single financial decision of a retirement. The difference between the earliest and the latest start is not a small adjustment. It is a permanent change to a monthly amount that will be received for the rest of a life, indexed, guaranteed by a government, and impossible to revisit afterwards. And the rules are not the same across the country: the plan that covers Quebec now allows a longer deferral and a larger increase than the plan that covers the rest of Canada, which means an article that gives one national answer is wrong for somebody. This one sets out how the adjustments actually work, where the two plans differ, and the four questions that decide the answer for a particular household.
How the adjustment works, in both plans
Both public plans set a standard age of 65 and then adjust the pension up or down depending on when it actually starts. The adjustment is not a bonus or a penalty; it is arithmetic intended to make the choices roughly equivalent for someone of average life expectancy. Whether it is equivalent for you is the entire question, and it depends on facts about you rather than about the plan.
Under the Canada Pension Plan, the pension can begin as early as the month after the 60th birthday and as late as age 70. Starting before 65 reduces it by 0.6 per cent for each month, which is 7.2 per cent for each full year, to a maximum reduction of 36 per cent at 60. Starting after 65 increases it by 0.7 per cent for each month, which is 8.4 per cent for each full year, to a maximum increase of 42 per cent at 70. There is no advantage to waiting past 70 under this plan.
Under the Quebec Pension Plan, the pension can also begin as early as 60, but it can now be deferred to 72 rather than 70. The reduction for starting early runs from 0.5 to 0.6 per cent for each month before 65 depending on contribution history, and the increase for deferring is 0.7 per cent for each month after 65, reaching 58.8 per cent at 72. Contributions after 65 are permitted, and reducing or stopping work after 65 does not lower the average employment earnings used in the calculation.
That difference between the two plans matters. Sixteen additional percentage points of permanent, indexed, government backed income is not a technicality, and any national rule of thumb that stops at 70 is giving Quebec readers an incomplete picture.
Old Age Security is a separate decision
It is easy to treat the public pensions as one thing, and they are not. Old Age Security is a different program with different eligibility, funded differently, and it carries its own timing choice: it can start at 65 or be deferred, increasing by 0.6 per cent for each month deferred to a maximum increase of 36 per cent at 70.
The two decisions interact but they are not the same decision, and there is no requirement to make them at the same time. A household can reasonably start one and defer the other, and the reasons for doing so are usually about tax and about the recovery tax on Old Age Security, which is a separate subject with its own arithmetic.
The four questions that actually decide it
The first is need. If the income is required to live on now, the analysis stops there, and taking the pension early is the correct decision rather than a mistake. No projection about age eighty five is worth borrowing at interest or depleting an emergency fund in your sixties.
The second is longevity, honestly assessed. Deferral rewards a long life and penalises a short one, and while nobody knows their own answer, family history and current health are real information. This is uncomfortable to think about and it is the single largest variable in the calculation.
The third is other income, and its shape as well as its size. A person with a defined benefit pension and registered accounts has a different problem from someone whose retirement income is mostly public. Deferring the public pension while drawing down registered accounts first can reduce the taxable income that arrives later, when minimum withdrawals from a registered income fund begin whether or not the money is needed. That interaction is worth modelling with a qualified tax professional rather than guessing.
The fourth is what the pension is for. A public pension is indexed, paid for life, and does not depend on markets. That makes it the best available protection against the two risks nothing else covers well: living a very long time, and inflation over that time. A household that is short of exactly that protection has a reason to buy more of it by deferring, which is what deferral is: buying more indexed lifetime income with money you would otherwise have received earlier.
The arguments people make, examined
Take it early because you might not live long enough is the most common, and it is a real consideration rather than a foolish one. It is also usually stated as though the risk of dying early were the only risk. The other risk is living a long time with less income than you needed, and it is the one that actually causes hardship, because the person who died at seventy did not experience the shortfall and the person who lived to ninety four did.
Take it early and invest the difference is a plan that can work and rarely does, because it requires investing every payment rather than spending it, achieving a return above what the deferral effectively provides, without the indexing and without the guarantee. It is worth asking honestly whether that is a plan or a preference.
Wait because the increase is guaranteed is also incomplete. It is guaranteed, and it is only valuable if you are there to collect it and did not have to borrow expensively or sell investments at a bad time to bridge the gap. The bridge is the part that gets skipped: deferral has to be funded from somewhere between the day you stop working and the day the pension starts.
A fourth argument deserves naming because it is quietly the strongest for couples: the survivor. What happens to household income when one of two people dies is a separate and important question, and it is affected by which pensions were started when. It belongs in the conversation rather than as an afterthought.
Working while receiving it
Starting a public pension does not require stopping work, and continuing to work does not prevent the pension. Under the Canada Pension Plan, working while receiving the pension before 65 continues to generate contributions that add a further benefit, and after 65 those contributions become optional. Under the Quebec plan, contributions after 65 are permitted, and stopping or reducing work after 65 does not reduce the average employment earnings used in the calculation.
The practical point for anyone still working in their sixties is that the timing decision and the retirement decision are two different decisions that have been habitually treated as one. They can be made separately, and often should be.
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Get your own numbers first. An estimate of what you would receive at different ages, based on your actual contribution record, is available from the administering authority: Service Canada for the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security, Retraite Québec for the Quebec Pension Plan. Nothing useful can be decided from a general article, including this one, because the amounts depend on a contribution history that is unique to you.
Then map the income timeline. Write down every source of retirement income, the year it starts, and whether it is indexed. Most households have never seen this on one page and it usually changes the conversation on its own, because it shows the gap years where deferral would have to be funded.
Then take both to a professional who can model the tax effect, since income that arrives in one year rather than another changes what is paid and what is recovered. The decision is permanent, it is worth an afternoon, and it is one of the few retirement decisions where thinking about it in advance genuinely changes the outcome.
What the plan pays when one of you dies
The survivor was named above as the quietest argument in this decision, and the retirement pension is not the only thing either plan pays.
Both plans provide a pension to a surviving spouse or common law partner, a benefit for dependent children, and a one time death benefit. None arrives on its own: each is applied for, and the death benefit carries a time limit families often discover too late.
The survivor pension is not a continuation of the one the deceased was receiving. It is calculated under its own rules, it is smaller, and a survivor who already has a pension of their own does not receive both in full: the two are combined under rules that cap the total.
So the income a couple is deciding about today becomes one person’s income later, on less than the two of them had. Service Canada and Retraite Québec publish the rules, and they differ.
Applying is a step, and it is not automatic
Nothing starts because you had a birthday. The pension begins when it is applied for and approved, processing takes time, and the application is filed some months before the month you want payments to start. Retroactivity is limited.
There is also a short window after payments begin in which someone who started can cancel, repay what was received, and choose again later. It is narrow, normally usable once, and once it closes the adjustment is fixed for life.
And the pension is taxable income from which no tax is withheld unless you ask, which is why the first tax season after retirement so often produces a balance owing. The request goes to the administrator; the right amount is a question for a qualified tax professional.
Frequently Asked Questions
What happens to my CPP if I take it at 60 instead of 65?
It is permanently reduced by 0.6 per cent for each month before 65, which is 7.2 per cent for each full year and a maximum reduction of 36 per cent at 60. The reduction applies for life and is not revisited later. Those figures are the Canada Pension Plan rules as published by Service Canada and read on 5 September 2026; confirm the current rules and your own estimate with the administering authority.
Can I defer my pension past 70?
It depends which plan you are in. Under the Canada Pension Plan there is no advantage to waiting past 70, where the increase reaches its maximum of 42 per cent. Under the Quebec Pension Plan the pension can be deferred to 72, with the increase continuing to 58.8 per cent at that age. Old Age Security can be deferred to 70, increasing by 0.6 per cent per month to a maximum of 36 per cent.
Is it better to take CPP early and invest it?
It can work and it rarely does, because the plan requires actually investing every payment rather than spending it, and earning a return above what deferral effectively provides, without indexing and without a government guarantee. It is worth asking honestly whether that is a plan you would follow or a preference for receiving money sooner. Both are legitimate; only one of them is a strategy.
Do I have to stop working to start my public pension?
No. Starting the pension does not require stopping work and continuing to work does not prevent the pension. Under the Canada Pension Plan, working while receiving it before 65 continues to generate contributions that add a further benefit, and after 65 those contributions become optional. Under the Quebec plan, contributions after 65 are permitted and reducing work after 65 does not lower the earnings used in the calculation.
How do I find out what I would actually receive?
From the administering authority, using your own contribution record: Service Canada for the Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security, and Retraite Québec for the Quebec Pension Plan. No general article can tell you the amount, because it depends on a contribution history that is unique to you, and no figure published anywhere stays current for long.
Does my spouse simply inherit my pension when I die?
No. A survivor pension is calculated under its own rules rather than continued at what you were receiving, and a survivor who already has a pension of their own does not receive both in full, because the two are combined under rules that cap the total. There is also a benefit for dependent children and a one time death benefit, each applied for separately.
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About the author
Jose Salloum is a Financial Security Advisor (Conseiller en sécurité financière) licensed by the Autorité des marchés financiers in Quebec, by the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of Ontario, and by the Insurance Council of British Columbia. Licensed since 2001, he works with Canadian families, business owners and incorporated professionals.
He is the founder of Canadian Wealth Creation Centre Inc. (CWCC), registered with the AMF, and of its educational branch IBCFinancial.com. He holds the Infinite Banking Concepts® Authorized Practitioner certification from the Nelson Nash Institute, a private certification rather than a regulatory licence.
CWCC is not registered with CIRO and does not provide securities advice. This page is general education and not advice on any individual file.
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