Centre for Policy on Ageing



The maturation of Canada's retirement system — income levels, income inequality and low income among older persons
Author(s)	John Myles
Journal title	Canadian Journal on Aging, vol 19, no 3, Autumn 2000
Pages	pp 287-316
Keywords	Income [older people] ; Pensions ; Poor elderly ; Statistics [data] ; Canada.
Annotation	The expanded role of earnings-related pensions in Canada in the 1980s and 1990s is largely the result of changes that occurred in the 1950s and 1960s. The Canada and Quebec Pension Plans (C/QPP) were implemented in 1966, and the first cohort to receive full C/QPP benefits turned 65 in 1976. Cohorts retiring after this period were also the beneficiaries of the expansion of private occupational pensions that took place between the 1950s and the 1970s. A detailed composition of income by source shows that the maturation of these earnings-related programmes produced not only a substantial increase in average real incomes, but also a substantial reduction in income inequality among older persons, due mainly to higher C/QPP benefits. Rising real incomes went disproportionately to lower income seniors, contributing to the well-known decline in low income rates among older people. (KJ/RH).
Accession Number	CPA-001206203 A
Classmark	JF: JJ: F:W6: 6C: 7S
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing

...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing.