Human Resources Legislative Update
Certain Old Age Security Amendments Contained in Federal Budget Bill Now in Force
Date: March 4, 2013
The federal government has fixed March 1, 2013 as the day sections 449, 450 and 453 of the Jobs, Growth and Long-term Prosperity Act (“JGLPA”) come into force. These sections amend the Old Age Security Act to provide for automatic enrolment of eligible persons for Old Age Security (“OAS”) pensions, to allow an eligible person to decline a waiver of the requirement for an application and to allow a pensioner to request cancellation of his or her pension after it has commenced.
The federal government registered Regulations Amending the Old Age Security Regulations on February 14, 2013. Sections 2 and 5 to 9 support the first phase of the proactive enrolment provisions found in sections 449, 450 and 453 of the JGLPA, noted above, and came into force on March 1, 2013. The Regulations also make an amendment to the age of eligibility provision in the Old Age Security Regulations (effective February 14, 2013) and to the manner in which a pension for those who have voluntarily deferred their OAS pensions is rounded to the nearest cent (effective July 1, 2013).
