Canadian Pension Plan

Canada Pension Plan (CPP) is a retirement pension program that provides monthly benefits to eligible applicants. Most individuals who work in Canada contribute to CPP. The Canadian Pension Plan provides pensions and benefits to contributors when they retire, become disabled, or die. In recent years there has been a tremendous fear that the CPP may not be there for the middle class retirees in the not so distant future. The Conservative party also announced that starting 2023 the eligibility for old age security (OAS) would go from 65 to 67. Old Age Security is a pension plan that offers low monthly payments for some people 65 years of age or older. OAS is only available for Canadian citizens or permanent legal residents. Many middle class

Canadian Statistics announced the unemployment rate being 7.1% in Canada, and the unemployment rate for Canadians 55 years and older at 6.0%. It is believed that the country will struggle to accommodate part-time or full-time jobs for the seniors to come in the near future. Many seniors have chosen to retire much later to save money in order to maintain a comfortable lifestyle after retirement, it is estimated that 600,000 seniors remain in the workforce in Canada. This complex issue has recently gotten the attention of politicians, with promises to completely fix the issue and lower retirement age which only screams higher taxes for the rest of the population. Some say that the issue of middle class retirement poverty can only be fixed by individuals properly planning and saving, but with people earning average income and below there isn't anything left to save at the end of the month. Another “solution” brought by politicians would be to enhance the CPP which would require working Canadians to pay more so they get more later, but with Canadians not being able to afford paying more there isn't much of a solution. The lack of CPP in the future to come will not only affect middle class, with 76% of workers in private sectors not having a pension plan at all this issue should scare us