Close to retirement with no savings? Here’s how you can get up to 42% more a month out of CPP

Deferring your CPP payments means you’ll receive more each month when you do begin to take it. “The first thing people should do if they’re getting ready for retirement is to figure out ways to delay their CPP so they can get this really low cost, high-quality pension plan,” says Bonnie-Jeanne MacDonald, director of financial security research at the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University.

As of April, the average CPP pension payment at age 65 was $844.53 per month. If you wait, you can almost double your monthly payment between age 60 and age 70, MacDonald says. After 65, your payments increase by 0.7 per cent each month, up to 42 per cent at age 70. “Delaying your CPP is an incredibly valuable opportunity because it’s the only pension plan that anyone has access to that will actually increase with inflation and will continue until you pass, so you won’t run out of money,” MacDonald explains. She adds that if someone delays CPP to 70 from 60, considering the average life expectancy, they’ll get $100,000 more money.