OAS Deferral 2026: start your pension at 65 or wait to 70?

Old Age Security can start at any month between 65 and 70, and each month of delay raises the pension by 0.6 percent for life, up to 36 percent at 70. Whether waiting pays depends less on the percentage than on the situation. For a full pension, the later start takes roughly fourteen years from the start date to make up for the payments given up, so a pension started at 70 breaks even around age 84. Deferral suits people who are still working and would otherwise lose part of the pension to the recovery tax, people short of forty years of residence who keep living in Canada, and people who can live on registered savings first. It is costly for anyone who would receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement, which is never paid while OAS is deferred, and for couples relying on the Allowance. This guide gives the amounts by start age and the cases on each side. Read more

Deferred OAS amounts, October to December 2026

The pension rises by 0.6% for each month you wait after 65, up to 70. The table shows the full pension by start age, the same pension after the 10% increase at 75, and the age at which the total received from the later start catches up with the total from a start at 65, before indexation and tax.

The arithmetic of waiting

Deferring means giving up payments now in exchange for larger payments later. With a full pension, each month of delay costs one month of pension and adds 0.6% to all future payments. The break-even point is therefore about 13.9 years after the start date, whatever the start age: someone who starts at 70 needs to live to about 83.9 before the larger pension has made up for the five years without payments, and someone who starts at 67 to about 80.9. The break-even does not move much with indexation, since both streams are indexed the same way.

Life expectancy at 65 in Canada is well above those break-even ages for many people, which is why deferral is often presented as a good deal. It is, for someone in good health who can live on other money between 65 and 70. It is a poor one for someone with a shorter expected lifespan, or who would have to draw down savings at a cost, or who would receive GIS.

Who gains from deferring

People still working at 65

A person with a salary between 65 and 70 pays tax on OAS at a high marginal rate, and above the threshold the recovery tax takes back 15% of the excess on top. A pensioner with $140,000 of other income in 2026 would repay $8,074.05 of a $9,150.00 pension. Deferring until income falls avoids paying it out only to recover it, and raises the pension that arrives once the salary stops.

People short of 40 years

For someone with a partial pension who keeps living in Canada, each year of deferral also adds a year of residence. The Act then pays the greater of the deferred partial pension and the pension recalculated on the longer residence. Both effects cannot be added, but the better of the two is guaranteed, and the OAS calculator shows which applies.

People with RRSP or RRIF savings to draw first

Drawing on registered savings between 65 and 70 while deferring OAS and CPP can smooth taxable income over retirement and reduce the RRIF withdrawals forced later, which in turn limits the recovery tax after 70.

Who should not defer

• Anyone who would receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement. No GIS is paid while OAS is deferred, and the supplement for those years is lost for good. The GIS calculator shows how much is at stake.
• A couple where the younger spouse could receive the Allowance. The Allowance requires the older spouse to receive OAS and GIS; deferring OAS removes it.
• Someone in poor health, or without other income to cover the years between 65 and the later start.
• Someone whose income will stay above the recovery threshold after 70, since a larger pension will simply be recovered at a higher amount.

Deferring OAS and CPP together

CPP can also be deferred, by 0.7% a month to 70, a better rate than OAS, and it can start as early as 60 with a reduction. When only one can be deferred, CPP usually offers more per month of delay. For people likely to receive GIS, the logic reverses for CPP as well: every dollar of CPP reduces the supplement, so a larger CPP later is partly offset. The CPP + OAS + GIS calculator lets you test both start ages, and the CPP guide covers the plan itself.

How to defer in practice

If Service Canada writes to say you will be enrolled automatically, reply in writing with the month you want the pension to start, or the pension will begin at 65. If you were not enrolled automatically, simply apply when you want payments to begin, up to eleven months in advance. There is no form to fill in for the increase itself: it is applied from the month after you become eligible to the month your application is approved, up to your 70th birthday. Waiting beyond 70 adds nothing and can cost up to eleven months of payments if you apply too late, since back payments are limited to that period.

Amounts for October to December 2026, checked against Service Canada on 2026-10-05; rules of the Old Age Security Act, s. 7.1.