"This book was written to explain in layman terms how the Canadian public pension system works, what benefits are offered, how to apply for it, and how to get the most out of it. The target audience is people at or approaching retirement age, financial services professionals, and students of the public pension system. Subject matters include: the Old Age Security program, Guaranteed Income Supplements, Allowances, the Canada/Quebec Pension Plan, provincial income supplement programs and income supplements and disability pension offered by Veterans Affairs Canada. Financial planning strategies such as when to collapse your RRSPs and how to minimize OAS clawbacks are included."--

Like other transfer programs, a pay-as-you-go public pension system can significantly affect economic behavior and, hence, relative prices and macroeconomic aggregates. This paper illustrates some of these effects, which are important in weighing options for reforming public pensions, in the context of a stylized model of the Canadian economy. It shows that introducing such a system can reduce aggregate saving, income, and wages and increase interest rates. It also shows that a significant part of the distortion can occur because benefits are not explicitly linked to contributions and that creating a linkage can reduce the distortions associated with the wage tax that funds plan contributions.

The Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (CPP/QPP) promote longer working life by paying later retirees higher pensions. But the incometested Guaranteed Income Supplement claws these CPP/QPP payments back from modest-income Canadians. Eliminating this clawback would make longer work more rewarding for many seniors.