Your 2023 cost-of-living adjustment

We are pleased to announce that the cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for 2023 is 6.3% for retired members who retired from the PSPP and their survivors. You will receive your Retired Member Statement (RMS) with your personal annual COLA in January 2023 along with the breakdown of your gross monthly pension for the year that includes COLA.

The annual COLA is a valuable benefit of your PSPP pension and helps to protect your pension from the impacts of inflation. We’ve heard some common questions from members like:

• How is COLA calculated?
• How does COLA impact my pension?
• Why is it different than what the media is reporting?

To answer those questions and provide you with a resource to help you understand more about COLA, we’ve launched a short video that you can watch here.

You can also learn more about COLA and how it’s calculated on our Inflation Protection/COLA page.

In early February, you will also be able to view your T4A or NR4 for 2022 through your e-services account.

To help you plan for your 2023 pension payments, we've posted pay dates for next year on our Pension pay dates page. We've also included information on how you can sign up for direct deposit for your pension payments – whether you live in Canada, the U.S. or another part of the world.

With the end of the year approaching, here are some items you may also want to consider:

• Has any of your personal information changed? Please update us! Visit our new online e-services to update your personal information including your address, marital status, and more – or contact us directly to make any necessary updates.
• If your 65th birthday is in 2023, note that your PSPP early retirement bridge benefit will end at the end of the month when you reach age 65.
• If you're holding on to medical and dental submissions for 2021, you may have until the end of 2022 to submit them for reimbursement. Visit our Insured benefits page for more details.

A few quick e-services reminders:

If you haven’t already, register for e-services(opens in a new tab).

Review your contact information to ensure it is up-to-date. If you need to make any changes, you can update your information online through your e-services account.

Are you a retired TVO Plan member or survivor?

For retired members who retired under the TVO Plan and their survivors, your COLA for 2023 is 3.0%. If you’re a retired member, you will receive your RMS with your personal annual COLA in December with the breakdown of your gross monthly pension for the year that includes COLA.

Are you a retired Ontario Northland Plan member or survivor in the Northline Transfer group?

For our retired Ontario Northland Plan members and survivors who are part of the Northline Transfer group, you will continue to receive your set annual increase. If you’re a retired member, your RMS will be mailed to you in 2023.

For other Ontario Northland Plan retirees who retired under the Ontario Northland Plan provisions (i.e. before the merger with the PSPP received consent in the fall of 2019), the Ontario Northland Plan was not funded to provide increases automatically unless the pension plan could afford it. This means that each year OPB will assess and make a recommendation to the Plan Sponsor (the Government of Ontario) about whether an ad hoc COLA can be provided. Any recommended increase will be based the PSPP's funding policy, which requires consideration of the funded status of the PSPP (and in particular, whether the PSPP has a surplus that exceeds a threshold set out in the funding policy) along with the cost of increase. Since the PSPP does not have a funding excess at this time, there won’t be an ad hoc increase for 2023.

Are you the survivor of a pensioner?

Your personal annual COLA letter for your survivor pension will be mailed to you in mid-December. The letter contains a breakdown of your gross monthly pension for the year that includes COLA.

Contact us:

If you have any questions about any of this information, our Client Care Centre is ready to assist you. Call us at 416-364-5035 or toll free (Canada and U.S. only) at 1-800-668-6203.