About the Old Age Security

The Old Age Security (OAS) program is one of the cornerstones of Canada's public retirement income system. The OAS program provides a base upon which individuals can add income from other sources to address their specific financial circumstances. These include the Canada Pension Plan or Quebec Pension Plan, employer-sponsored pension plans, and personal registered retirement savings plans, as well as investments and personal savings. The OAS program provides the basic OAS pension to seniors aged 65 and over who meet the legal status and residence requirements. It also provides the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) to low-income OAS pensioners, as well as the Allowances for low-income individuals aged 60 to 64 who are the spouses or common-law partners of GIS recipients, or who are widows or widowers.

Service Canada's delivery of OAS benefits involves multiple services, including:

• answering program queries through specialized call centres, via the Internet and at in-person points of service;
• collecting and processing benefit applications and issuing payments;
• monitoring decisions and payments for accuracy;
• administering requests for reconsideration of a decision;
• conducting client authentication and identification; and,
• preventing, detecting and deterring fraud and abuse.