The pension that arrives without an application, and the income that trims it

Old Age Security is unusual among Canadian pensions in two ways. Nobody pays into it, so the amount has nothing to do with past earnings, and for most people it starts without an application: a letter arrives around the 64th birthday saying enrolment will happen on its own. What the pension does depend on is how long you have lived in Canada, when you choose to start it, and, once it is in payment, how much other income shows on your tax return.

The amounts for October to December 2026

Service Canada adjusts OAS every January, April, July and October to the consumer price index, and the amount can rise but never falls. For the quarter from October to December 2026, after a 1.4 % adjustment, the maximum pension is $762.50 a month for people aged 65 to 74 and $838.75 for people aged 75 and over. The higher figure reflects the permanent 10 % increase introduced in July 2022, which starts automatically in the month after a pensioner's 75th birthday and does not affect any Guaranteed Income Supplement they receive.

Those are maximums. Service Canada notes that the full amount is paid only to pensioners whose 2025 net income was below $152,062 (65 to 74) or $157,923 (75 and over); above those levels the recovery tax described below has removed the pension entirely.

Residence: the 10-year and 40-year rules

To receive any OAS while living in Canada you must be 65 or older, a Canadian citizen or legal resident when the application is approved, and have lived in Canada for at least 10 years since turning 18. Someone living outside Canada needs 20 years of residence after 18. A full pension requires 40 years of residence after 18; anyone with fewer receives a partial pension in the proportion of years lived in Canada divided by 40. A person with 30 years receives 30/40 of the maximum, and that fraction is fixed once the pension starts, though it is still indexed.

Starting later: 0.6 % for every month

The pension can start at 65 or at any month up to age 70. Each month of delay adds 0.6 % to the monthly amount, which is 7.2 % a year and a maximum of 36 % at 70. There is no advantage in waiting beyond 70, and deferred months are never paid retroactively. One important restriction: GIS cannot be paid to someone who is not receiving OAS, so deferring the pension also means forgoing the supplement, and the supplement itself does not grow with a delay.

Source: Service Canada, "When to start your Old Age Security pension", sample table for the current quarter. Amounts are before the 10 % increase at 75 and before any recovery tax.

The recovery tax, and how a tax return trims the pension

The clawback has an official name, the OAS recovery tax, and a simple formula: 15 % of the amount by which net world income exceeds a threshold that is indexed each year. The threshold is $93,454 for 2025 income and $95,323 for 2026 income. Income from one calendar year determines deductions for the twelve months starting the following July, so 2026 income sets the deductions from July 2027 to June 2028. The pension is gone altogether once income reaches roughly $155,320 (65 to 74) or $161,320 (75 and over) for 2026; Service Canada marks those two upper figures as estimates until October, when the year's final OAS amounts are known.

An illustrative example. A pensioner aged 68 has 2026 net income of $110,000, including the OAS itself, a workplace pension and RRIF withdrawals. The excess over $95,323 is $14,677, and 15 % of that is $2,201.55. Spread over twelve months, about $183.46 is withheld from each OAS payment from July 2027 to June 2028, and the final figure is settled on the 2027 tax return. Because the deduction is computed from net income, decisions that lower that line, such as the timing of RRSP or RRIF withdrawals or splitting eligible pension income with a spouse, change the result; how net income flows into the rest of the return is covered in our guide to the 2026 federal brackets.

The recovery tax is 15 cents on each dollar of income over the threshold, never a sudden loss of the whole pension.

The Guaranteed Income Supplement

At the other end of the income scale sits the GIS, a tax-free monthly supplement for OAS pensioners with low income who live in Canada. For October to December 2026 the maximum is $1,138.90 a month for a single, widowed or divorced pensioner with annual income under $23,112, not counting the OAS itself. For couples the figures depend on the partner's situation: up to $685.56 each where the partner also receives a full OAS pension and combined income is under $30,528; up to $685.56 where the partner receives the Allowance and combined income is under $42,768; and up to $1,138.90 where the partner receives neither OAS nor the Allowance and combined income is under $55,392.

The GIS is income-tested every year from the tax return, which is why Service Canada warns that pensioners who have not filed their 2025 taxes may see payments stop or fall. Since the supplement is tax-free and withdrawn as other income rises, the order in which a lower-income pensioner draws on a TFSA (whose withdrawals are not income) and an RRSP or RRIF (whose withdrawals are) has a direct effect on the GIS amount.

Good to know

Deferring OAS to 70 raises the pension by 36 %, but the recovery tax threshold does not move with it, so a larger pension on top of other income can mean a larger clawback later.

Automatic enrolment at 64

Service Canada enrols most people without an application. If it has enough information on file, a letter arrives around the 64th birthday confirming that the pension will start at 65 or inviting the person to choose a later date. If a month has passed since the 64th birthday and no letter has come, Service Canada asks people to contact it to find out whether they need to apply. Applications can be made online from one month after the 64th birthday, or on paper; anyone applying from outside Canada must use the paper form.

Who this matters for, and what to check

• Anyone turning 64 in 2026: watch for the enrolment letter and contact Service Canada if it has not arrived a month after the birthday.
• Pensioners with 2026 net income approaching $95,323, including from RRIF withdrawals, since 15 % of the excess comes off OAS from July 2027.
• Immigrants and returning Canadians with fewer than 40 years of residence after 18, whose pension is a fixed fraction of the maximum.
• People weighing a deferral: the 0.6 % per month increase is permanent, but no GIS is payable in the meantime.
• Lower-income pensioners who have not yet filed a 2025 return, because the GIS is recalculated from it.

The takeaway

Three numbers describe where a household stands with Old Age Security in late 2026: the quarterly maximum of $762.50 or $838.75, the recovery tax threshold of $95,323 for 2026 income, and the GIS income limit of $23,112 for a single pensioner. Years of residence set the fraction of the maximum, starting age can raise it by up to 36 %, and the tax return filed each spring decides whether anything is taken away or added from the following July. The medical expense tax credit works from the same net income line.