IN THE NEWS: Ottawa Citizen Article on the Need for Full Retroactivity for CPP Benefits

PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
DATE: 2007.02.26
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
PAGE: A3
BYLINE: Norma Greenaway
SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen

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Late CPP applicants lose thousands in benefits: Women hit hardest by 11-month limit on retroactive payments
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Many elderly Canadians, especially women, are losing thousands of dollars in income because the federal government bars them from collecting all the Canada Pension Plan benefits they have earned, says Ottawa statistician Richard Shillington.

Mr. Shillington says the government's refusal to make payments to the plan fully retroactive is a travesty for the thousands of people who apply late. With few exceptions, current federal law restricts retroactive payments to 11 months.

NDP MP Chris Charlton says the limit is an outrage. She has introduced a private member's bill calling for full retroactivity with interest on missed CPP benefits.
She says the money belongs to the workers who paid into the plan and they should get that money whether they apply at age 65, when they qualify, or much later.

"It's not the government's money. CPP is a pay-as-you-go plan," she said in an interview. "If somebody is delayed in making an application under the plan, they shouldn't be penalized for trying to access their own money."
At the very least, she said, the federal government should match the five-year retroactivity of the Quebec Pension Plan.

In 2006 alone, more than 3,000 people who applied for their CPP benefits were 70 years or older, according to government figures. Of those, more than 355 were aged 85 or older.

Shillington says his heart aches most for those people because they have missed out on two decades or more of benefits.

The vast majority in that category --287 --were women.
The consultant estimates up to 55,000 seniors are missing out on CPP retirement benefits, based on numbers he obtained through access to information legislation.

He says the government should be doing more to reach out to seniors who are eligible for benefits, but who, for reasons ranging from ill health to illiteracy, might not realize it or have the wherewithal to apply.

Women are hardest hit because officials often assume that elderly woman were stay-at-home wives and mothers, and therefore do not check to see whether they are eligible for Canada Pension Plan benefits when they are applying for old age pension or the guaranteed income supplement.

Amid Mr. Shillington's collection of files is the story of Ernestine, who, he says, missed out on $60,000 in CPP benefits. The Ontario woman was nearly 90 years old by the time her son discovered she should have been getting benefits. Despite repeated appeals Ernestine got only the 11 months' worth of retroactive benefits normally allowed. She died in 2002.