Toolkit to Reform Old Age Security
Use our toolkit to call on Ottawa to update Old Age Security, and bring Canada's retirement policy into the 21st century.
Fix Old Age Security
Old Age Security is stuck in 1952. Today’s taxpayers send $18,000 a year to retired couples with $182,000 in income, while 400,000 seniors live in poverty. That’s not the most efficient use of an $86-billion program.
The fix is simple: ask retired couples with incomes over $100,000 to take slightly less from OAS. The savings would lift every senior out of poverty and free billions for other priorities – all with no new taxes.
Families with kids have benefits reduced once household incomes hits $81,000. Seniors are less likely to be poor and more to likely to own their homes – yet enjoy $100,000 more breathing room before any clawbacks.
Retirees are ready to do their part. Most Canadians are on board. Now it’s time for federal leaders to step up.
Join us to bring OAS into the 21st century — a win for seniors, families, and taxpayers alike.
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3 reasons it's urgent to update OAS
Seventy-five years on, OAS is dragging down budgets, and letting down seniors and young people alike. Not even our Auditor General can say if the program is working. Clearly, it’s time for a reboot.
1. To get better bang for our buck
Nearly one-fifth of the federal budget goes to OAS, and costs are rising more than any other budget line item as Canada's population ages. Retired couples with incomes of $182,000 can get the full $18,000 OAS subsidy, while around 400,000 seniors still live in poverty. We can spend smarter.
2. To reduce ageism
Young people pay more taxes for retirement supports than today's seniors paid for their elders, but get less in exchange. Senior couples can have $100,000 more income than families with kids before benefits are clawed back - even though investments in young people's wellbeing are already lagging behind
3. To stop mortgaging the future
Governments decades ago didn't plan for the rising costs of population aging. By failing to put OAS on a fiscally sustainable path, they are now choosing to drive up deficits - and leaving the unpaid bills to our kids.
Our plan gives more to the poorest seniors, grows income and housing security for younger and working people, and shores up Canada’s finances — all without raising taxes.
The fix is simple: retired couples with incomes over $100,000 would take slightly less from OAS. About one in five would see a reduction of roughly $3,200 after tax — while some single seniors would actually receive more.
Canadians would save $7 billion a year. With this, we could:
- Virtually eliminate seniors’ poverty
- Make homes, education, and child care more affordable
- Expand benefits for low-income workers
- Defend Canada’s economy and sovereignty
- Put the brakes on ballooning deficits
All while preserving an OAS threshold that remains far more generous than the $81,000 Canada Child Benefit cut-off, and is also well above the median household income of $74,200. No wonder ¾ of Canadians – including ¾ of seniors – support this plan.
And we can double our impact.
Phasing out two outdated tax shelters — the Age Credit and Pension Income Credit — would free up another $7 billion a year. These credits no longer make sense when retirees as a group hold more wealth than younger Canadians, while low-wage workers face greater poverty and housing insecurity.
Together, $14 billion annually is a major down payment on pairing investments in Canada’s economic and defence infrastructure with the social infrastructure we need for a healthy, resilient society.
Take Action Now to Fix OAS
Contact Your Member of Parliament
Tell your MP: OAS helps too little where it’s needed, and too much where it’s not. Now is the time to fix it.
Join others speaking up
Your story matters! Make a short video with us on why you support modernizing OAS.
OAS Can Work Better - And So Many People Know It
Politicians, journalists, and community leaders from the left, right, and centre know it’s time for a better OAS design.
Canadians Want OAS to Work Better
Three-quarters of Canadians — including three-quarters of seniors — support asking retired couples with six-figure incomes to accept slightly smaller OAS payments.
OR
At a time when so many are squeezed by rising living costs, delivering $18,000 a year to retired couples with $182,000 in income should no longer be a top priority for taxpayer dollars.
By following our plan, we can redirect billions to support Canadians of all ages who need it the most.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is Old Age Security (OAS)?
Old Age Security (OAS) is a subsidy the Government of Canada pays to seniors who are age 65 and older.
As of April 2025, individual seniors with up to $90,000 of annual income receive $9,000 annually in OAS cash benefits.
Senior couples with up to $180,000 in annual income receive $18,000 annually in OAS benefits, because they can rely on pension income splitting to maximize their OAS subsidies.
All seniors are eligible for OAS if they are Canadian citizens or legal residents, and if they have resided in Canada for at least 10 years since the age of 18. Employment history does not determine eligibility for OAS. Seniors can still receive the subsidy if they have never worked, or if they are still working.
The money seniors get from OAS is not drawn from contributions they have historically made to the program. OAS is funded out of general government tax revenues, and is paid for by today’s taxpayers.
Under Canada’s current tax system, all Canadian seniors are also automatically eligible for the Pension Income Credit, and those with incomes up to $92,000 are also eligible for the Age Credit.
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What is the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS)?
The Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) is a component of Canada’s Old Age Security (OAS) system that delivers additional non-taxable financial support to retirees with low incomes.
As of May 2025, single retirees with incomes below $22,056 are eligible to receive the GIS. Retired couples are eligible if their combined income is below:
- $29,136 if a spouse/common-law partner receives full OAS benefits.
- $52,848 if a spouse/common-law partner does not receive OAS benefits.
The figures we use on federal government spending on OAS includes spending on GIS.
Our plan to eliminate seniors’ poverty could be implemented by increasing GIS benefits. At present, eligible single retirees can receive up to $1,087 per month, or $13,044 per year. The $5,000 increase we propose would increase this amount by over 38%.
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Why is OAS so out of date?
When OAS was created in 1952, things looked pretty different in Canada. We didn't have the Canada Pension Plan. We didn't have as many tax shelters for retirees, like the Age Credit and the Pension Income Credit. People didn't expect to live for as many years post retirement. And we had 7 working age Canadians paying taxes to help support each retiree - now there are only 3 worker per retiree.
With all of the changes that have taken place between 1952 and today, it's no surprise that we're well past due on updating OAS. It's time to make sure OAS is fit for purpose in 2025.
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How many retirees would be affected by reducing the OAS eligibility threshold to $100k of household income?
Our plan would affect only 1 in 5 retirees, and only those with household incomes above $100k (well above the median in Canada). We’re asking this 20% to take about $2,900 less after-tax income.
If you think this change risks compromising their standard of living, please watch our videos to hear directly from some of them about why this isn’t true. Or subscribers can read the Globe & Mail’s Financial Facelift section for shocking stories of how financial planners help seniors maximize OAS payments – whether they need them or not. Or here’s a free column from us.
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Is it fair to reduce payments for retirees – haven’t they earned them by working and paying taxes?
OAS is not the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Today’s retirees have not paid into OAS in proportion to the benefits they now receive – even if they worked hard and paid taxes according to the rules of the day.
In anticipation of the baby boom cohort aging, the government changed CPP so Canadians could collect a benefit relatively proportionate to what they contributed. Sadly, Ottawa didn’t do the same for OAS. It remains a government subsidy paid to whomever is eligible – and eligibility rules are far more generous than for most other cash benefits. The generosity of OAS for affluent retirees is now a primary reason we leave a half million seniors in poverty, and rack up large deficits that our kids and future generations will inherit.
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How does OAS compare to other cash benefits delivered by the federal government?
After OAS, the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) is probably the best-known cash subsidy delivered by Ottawa. Families receiving the CCB don’t benefit from the same level of generosity extended to retirees.
Ottawa claws back the Canada Child Benefit from families with kids when their household income surpasses $79,000. By contrast, retired couples can have $180,000 in combined income before OAS payments are reduced. This disparity persists even though compared to young families, retirees have the lowest rates of poverty, the highest levels of wealth, and a great deal of housing security (since 70% are home owners).
Sadly, fewer than half of Canadians are aware that low-income families with kids receive smaller cash benefits than retirees. Younger age groups are somewhat more likely to be aware of the discrepancy, but just 31% of Canadians ag 65+ know that the cash benefits they receive exceed what’s available to families with kids.
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Why are young people really paying more taxes to support Canada’s aging population?
Liberal, Conservative and NDP governments across Canada are running large deficits. This trend is a threat to generational fairness, because younger and future generations will be saddled with the bills we leave unpaid today. To help understand why this is happening, we took a look at how income taxes have changed over the last 5 decades. Here’s what we found.
Income taxes are lower today than when baby boomers were young.
Because income tax rates are generally lower now than they were half a century ago.
Today’s retirees consume a larger share of the revenue governments collect via income taxes, compared to what we collectively spent on retirees when the baby boom generation was young.
Despite lower tax rates, more tax dollars go to retirees’ medical care and Old Age Security today than half a century ago. This is because the percentage of Canada’s population over age 65 has increased from 8% in 1976, to 19% in 2024.
A larger share of the tax dollars paid by younger people today goes to support retirees, compared to what retirees paid to support older generations when they were young.
The typical 35-year-old now pays around 20-40% more for boomers’ Old Age Security and medical care than boomers paid as young people to support the smaller number of seniors in their day.
Together, these trends result in governments having fewer funds to invest in younger generations — even though these age groups face greater financial insecurity and declining wellbeing. That’s not investing fairly in young and old alike.
Learn more in our full tax trends analysis.
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Why is it OAS spending that drives up the federal deficit – what about spending on other federal programs?
OAS is the largest line item in the federal budget. Fully one-fifth of all federal spending goes to OAS, and this amount is growing faster than most other expenditures put together.
It is impossible to restore balance to the federal budget without factoring in OAS. Politicians who say otherwise are trying to pull the wool over your eyes. There may be other things to cut – and reasonable people can disagree about what these are – but most of the frequently cited targets are simply too small to fill our growing budget hole.
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Why are there different numbers about how many seniors are poor?
When it comes to measuring seniors' poverty, there are 3 different measures. Two of these 3 show that seniors are less likely to be poor than other age groups. This includes Canada's official poverty measure, which informs the national poverty reduction plan. One measure shows that seniors' poverty is slightly higher than other age groups. No poverty measure accounts for wealth - like the housing wealth that many of the majority of seniors who own their homes have gained from rising prices.
Canada’s official poverty line is the Market Basket Measure (MBM), which defines poverty based on the cost of a ‘basket’ of goods and services considered essential to have a modest standard of living. A household is considered poor if its income is insufficient to purchase this basket. The MBM is measured and reported by Statistics Canada.
According to the MBM, seniors have the lowest rate of poverty of all age groups. The most recent data for 2023 show that seniors are the only group for whom poverty has declined, to 5%.
The Material Deprivation Index (MDI) assesses whether a household can access 11 essential goods and services considered necessary for a ‘minimally acceptable’ standard of living. A household is considered poor if it cannot afford two or more of these 11 items. This measure was developed recently by Food Banks Canada and other partners.
According to the MDI, seniors have the lowest rate of poverty of all age groups. The 14% of seniors considered to be poor under the MDI is much higher than the 5% under the MBM.
The Low Income Measure (LIM) assesses poverty by comparing households to Canada’s median income. It is a relative measure of poverty, meaning that changes to median income can affect the number of households considered poor, even if the incomes of these households themselves remain the same. The LIM considers a household to be poor if its income is less than 50% of the median (adjusted for household size). The LIM is measured and reported by Statistics Canada.
According to the LIM, seniors have slightly higher rates of poverty than other age groups: 13.8% in 2023, compared to 13.2% for those under age 18 and 11.1% for those age 18-64.
Add your name to support our win-win-win plan to eliminate seniors’ poverty, help younger generations, and reduce the deficit.
