Summary – Survey on Pension deferral awareness

Official title: Summary of the results of the survey on Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security Pension deferral awareness among Canadians

On this page

• Background
• Objective
• Methodology
• Survey results
• Use of survey results

Background

Canada’s retirement income system includes pension deferral options for both:

• Canada Pension Plan (CPP) retirement pension, and
• Old Age Security (OAS) pension

These options aim to give Canadians more flexibility as they transition to retirement.

We conducted a survey in 2018 on pension deferral awareness among Canadians.

Objective

The research objective was to measure the level of awareness of CPP and OAS deferral options for Canadians aged 40 to 64.

Methodology

We conducted the survey on the Canada.ca website during the July 27 to August 20, 2018, period. The survey used a random pop-up to recruit a total of 8,622 participants. This resulted in 3,834 valid participants, aged 40 to 64.

The survey asked participants to answer 2 questions on deferral awareness, one for the CPP retirement pension and one for the OAS pension.

For the survey, we:

• recruited participants online from a Government of Canada website, and
• selected respondents from individuals who volunteered to participate in an online survey

As a result, respondents may:

• have a higher level of education and higher income than the general population, and
• be more aware of CPP and OAS than the general population

Question on deferral awareness for the CPP retirement pension

Do you think it's possible to delay the start of your CPP retirement pension?

Multiple-choice answers

1. No, you must start your pension as soon as you become eligible
2. Yes, but your monthly pension amount will stay the same
3. Yes, but your monthly pension amount will be reduced for each month you delay
4. Yes, and your monthly pension amount will be increased for each month you delay
5. I don’t know

Correct answer

The correct answer is number 4 (Yes, and your monthly pension amount will be increased for each month you delay).

Question on deferral awareness for the OAS pension

Do you think it's possible to delay the start of your OAS pension?

Multiple-choice answers

1. No, you must start your pension as soon as you become eligible
2. Yes, but your monthly pension amount will stay the same
3. Yes, but your monthly pension amount will be reduced for each month you delay
4. Yes, and your monthly pension amount will be increased for each month you delay
5. I don’t know

Correct answer

The correct answer is number 4 (Yes, and your monthly pension amount will be increased for each month you delay).

Survey results

The survey found that:

• overall, pension deferral awareness was low:
  • 36% of all respondents were correctly aware of the deferral option for the CPP retirement pension
  • 17% of all respondents were correctly aware of the deferral option for the OAS pension
• men were more likely to be aware than women:
  • more men (42%) than women (34%) were correctly aware of the deferral option for the CPP retirement pension
  • more men (20%) than women (16%) were correctly aware of the deferral option for the OAS pension
• awareness increased with age:
  • more respondents aged 60 to 64 (58%) than respondents aged 40 to 44 (16%) were correctly aware of the deferral option for the CPP retirement pension
  • more respondents aged 60 to 64 (25%) than respondents aged 40 to 44 (9%) were correctly aware of the deferral option for the OAS pension
• awareness increased with income:
  • correct awareness of the deferral option for the CPP retirement pension was the highest for respondents with personal annual income over $125,000 (59%) and the lowest for respondents with personal annual income below $25,000 (26%)
  • correct awareness of the deferral option for the OAS pension was the highest for respondents with personal annual income over $125,000 (29%) and the lowest for respondents with personal annual income below $25,000 (12%)
• awareness increased with level of education:
  • more respondents with an undergraduate degree (49%) were correctly aware of the deferral option for the CPP retirement pension than respondents without a high school diploma or equivalency certificate (28%)
  • more respondents with an undergraduate degree (25%) were correctly aware of the deferral option for the OAS pension than respondents without a high school diploma or equivalency certificate (12%)

Tables 1 to 5 break down the survey results by program, sex, age, income, and education level.

Table 1 - Proportion (%) of respondents aware of pension deferral options, by program

Program	% of respondents correctly aware of pension deferral options
CPP retirement pension	36
OAS pension	17

Table 2 - Proportion (%) of respondents aware of pension deferral options, by sex

Sex	% of respondents correctly aware of CPP deferral option	% of respondents correctly aware of OAS deferral option
Women	34	16
Men	42	20

Table 3 - Proportion (%) aware of pension deferral options, by age

Age	% of respondents correctly aware of CPP deferral option	% of respondents correctly aware of OAS deferral option
40 to 44	16	9
45 to 49	17	8
50 to 54	27	17
55 to 59	46	19
60 to 64	58	25

Table 4 - Proportion (%) aware of pension deferral options, by income

Personal annual income ($)	% of respondents correctly aware of CPP deferral option	% of respondents correctly aware of OAS deferral option
Less than $25,000	26	12
$25,000 to $49,999	31	15
$50,000 to $74,999	41	18
$75,000 to $99,999	50	26
$100,000 to $124,999	53	28
$125,000 or more	59	29

Table 5 - Proportion (%) aware of pension deferral options, by education level

Education level	% of respondents correctly aware of CPP deferral option	% of respondents correctly aware of OAS deferral option
Without high school diploma or equivalency certificate	28	12
High school diploma or equivalency certificate	28	13
Undergraduate degree	49	25

Use of survey results

We are using the survey results to promote awareness of pension deferral options among Canadians.