Canada Pension Plan

Marginal note:Amount of death benefit

• 57 (1) Subject to subsection (1.1), a death benefit payable to the estate of a contributor is a lump sum amount equal to

  • (a) six times the amount of the contributor’s retirement pension, calculated as provided in subsection (2), or

  • (b) ten per cent of the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings for the year in which the contributor died,

  whichever is the lesser.

• Marginal note:Maximum in cases of death after December 31, 1997

  (1.1) Where the contributor’s death occurs after December 31, 1997, the lump sum referred to in subsection (1) shall not exceed $2,500.

• Marginal note:Calculation of contributor’s retirement pension

  (2) The amount of the contributor’s retirement pension to be used for the purposes of subsection (1) is

  • (a) in the case of a contributor who died before January 1, 1987 and to whom a retirement pension was payable for the month in which he died, the amount of such pension for that month, but where that contributor’s contributory period ended before January 1976, the amount is the amount of the retirement pension payable for the month in which he died multiplied by the ratio that the basic number of contributory months bears to the number of months in the contributor’s contributory period;

  • (b) in the case of a contributor who died before January 1, 1987 and to whom no retirement pension was payable for the month in which he died, an amount equal to twenty-five per cent of his average monthly pensionable earnings, calculated as provided in sections 46 to 53 except that, in making that calculation,

    • (i) subsections 46(3) to (6) and section 47 are not applicable,

    • (ii) subsection 48(1) shall be read as follows:

      • “48 (1) Subject to subsections (2), (3) and (4), the average monthly pensionable earnings of a contributor are an amount calculated by dividing his total pensionable earnings by the total number of months in his contributory period.”, and

    • (iii) section 51 shall be read as though for the reference therein to the year in which a benefit becomes payable to the contributor there were substituted a reference to the year in which the contributor died; and

  • (c) in the case of a contributor who died on or after January 1, 1987,

    • (i) where a retirement pension was not payable for the month in which the contributor died, an amount equal to twenty-five per cent of his average monthly pensionable earnings, calculated as provided in subsection (3), or

    • (ii) where a retirement pension was payable for the month in which the contributor died, the product obtained by multiplying

      • (A) an amount equal to twenty-five per cent of his average monthly pensionable earnings, calculated as provided in subsection (3),

      by

      • (B) the ratio that the Pension Index for the year that includes that month bears to the Pension Index for the year in which the retirement pension first became payable, calculated, where the year in which the retirement pension first became payable was prior to 1974, as if the Pension Index for that year had not been subject to the limitation referred to in paragraph 43.1(2)(a) of the Canada Pension Plan, chapter C-5 of the Revised Statutes of Canada, 1970, of 1.02 times the Pension Index for the preceding year.

• Marginal note:Calculation of average monthly pensionable earnings

  (3) Subject to subsections 48(2), (3) and (4), the average monthly pensionable earnings of a contributor is an amount calculated by dividing his total pensionable earnings by the total number of months in his contributory period or by thirty-six, whichever is greater, and

  • (a) in the case of a contributor to whom a retirement pension was payable for the month in which he died, section 51 applies; or

  • (b) in the case of a contributor to whom no retirement pension was payable for the month in which he died, section 51 applies but the reference therein to the year in which a benefit becomes payable to the contributor shall be read as a reference to the year in which the contributor died.