Survivor Benefit Entitlements–Canadian Armed Forces pensions

As a member of the Regular Force Pension Plan or the Reserve Force Pension Plan, whether you are still serving in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) or as an annuitant, your survivors and eligible children may be entitled to pension benefits under the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act (CFSA) in the event of your death. The following information is intended to provide you with a basic understanding of these benefits.

Who is entitled to survivor benefits?

If you have a legal spouse or common-law partner of the same or opposite sex, he or she will be eligible for a survivor pension, which is a monthly allowance payable for life. The claimant must have been married to you at the time of your death, or, if common-law, be able to establish that he or she lived with you in a conjugal relationship for at least one year before your death.

If you die within one year of marriage, no survivor benefit is payable unless there is satisfactory proof that your health at the time of marriage was such that you expected to survive for at least one year. A letter must be provided to the Government of Canada Pension Centre, along with a letter from the member's physician, stating this.

If you have both a legal spouse and an eligible common-law partner with whom you have lived in a conjugal relationship for at least one year, the survivor pension will be apportioned between the two.

If you were a member of the Regular Force Pension Plan and are in receipt of a pension, you can choose to provide an Optional Survivor Benefit (OSB) for your new spouse if you get married after age 60. For more information about this, visit the When Death Occurs life event. At present, there is no corresponding provision under the Reserve Force Pension Plan Regulations (RFPPR) nor does the option apply to the common-law partners of annuitants under either plan.

Any children you have are entitled to survivor benefits upon your death, if they meet the definition of “child”. Refer to the Child allowance section for more information.

Benefits Payable

If your death occurs before you have completed two years of pensionable service, your survivor and/or children receive a lump-sum payment equal to the greater of:

  • your contributions, plus interest; and
  • one month of pay for every year of pensionable service

If you have at least two years of pensionable service, your survivor and/or children receive a monthly pension.

If your spouse or common-law partner is eligible for a survivor pension, he or she will also be eligible for benefits under the Public Service Health Care Plan (PSHCP) and under the Pensioners' Dental Services Plan (PDSP).

For detailed information about survivor benefits, please visit the Survivor/Child(ren) life events.

Survivor Pension

In the event of your death, your eligible survivor will be entitled to a monthly allowance equal to exactly half of the benefit you would have received had you become entitled to an annuity or annual allowance immediately prior to your death.

The survivor pension is payable immediately, regardless of whether you die as an active member in either of the pension plans or as an annuitant. It is fully indexed on an annual basis for the rest of your survivor's life. For more information, refer to the Indexing page.

Your survivor can receive benefits under the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) or Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) and also receive a full survivor pension under the Canadian Forces Superannuation Act (CFSA).

Your survivor can irrevocably waive the right to receive his or her portion of your pension upon your death only if it would increase the pension paid to a child or if it results in the payment of a minimum death benefit.

Child Pension

In the event of your death:

If you were a member of the Regular Force Pension Plan and released with two or more years of pensionable service

Each of your children, to a maximum of four, receives a pension equal to 20% of the pension payable to your survivor. For children under age 18, this pension is paid to the survivor or legal guardian on behalf of the children. Children who are age 18 or older have the benefit paid directly to them if they are attending school on a full-time basis until age 25 by completing the Declaration of Attendance at an Educational Institute (CF-FC 2002) form.

If there is no survivor pension payable at your death, or when your survivor dies, the child pension is increased from 20% to 40% of the survivor amount.

If you have more than four children when you die, the amount of the pensions for four children would be divided equally among all the children.

If you were a member of the Reserve Force Pension Plan and released with two or more years of pensionable service

Each of your children, to a maximum of two, receives a pension equal to 25% of the pension payable to your survivor. For children under the age of 18, this pension is paid to the survivor or legal guardian on behalf of the children. Children age 18 or older have the pension paid directly to them if they are attending school on a full-time basis until the age of 25 by completing the Declaration of Attendance at an Educational Institute (CF-FC 2002) form. If you have more than two children when you die, the pensions for two children would be divided equally among all the children.

If there is no survivor pension payable at your death, or when your survivor dies, the children's pension is increased from 25% to 50% of the survivor's amount, up to a maximum of three children. If you have more than three children when you die, the value of the benefits for three children would be divided equally among all the children.

Minimum Benefit

If your death occurs before you have completed two years of pensionable service, and you have no survivor and/or children, your beneficiary or estate receives a lump-sum payment equal to your contributions, plus interest.

If you have at least two years of pensionable service, and no survivor and/or children, your beneficiary or estate receive a lump-sum payment equal to the greater of:

  • your contributions with interest; and
  • 5 times the annual amount of your lifetime and bridge benefit accumulated at your death

If you have no eligible survivor or children, or if your eligible survivor and children die shortly after you, the beneficiary you designated to receive the supplementary death benefit (if applicable) or your estate will receive an amount equal to the greater of:

  • the return of your contributions with interest; or
  • 5 years of basic pension payments, less any payments already received

Required documents for claiming survivor benefits

In order to receive survivor benefits, your legal spouse must send in a copy of your marriage certificate and his or her birth certificate, as well as the birth certificate(s) of any eligible children.

For your common-law partner to receive a survivor pension, he or she must send in a sworn declaration (claimant's statement), as well as two other sworn declarations (supporting statements) to the Government of Canada Pension Centre. He or she must also provide documented evidence establishing that he or she was residing with you in a relationship of a conjugal nature for at least one year prior to your death. This evidence could be in the form of statutory declarations from persons who attest to the relationship, along with bills or receipts, mortgage papers, leases, joint bank accounts, credit accounts or any other relevant documents.

If you wish to provide information about your common-law relationship, the Statutory Declaration-Common Law (CF-FC 2016) may be sent to the Government of Canada Pension Centre along with the other evidence (mentioned above) that establishes the conjugal nature and the period of the relationship.

For more information, refer to the Survivor/Child(ren) life events section.

Supplementary Death Benefit

Benefits may also be payable under the Supplementary Death Benefit (SDB) plan to your designated beneficiary if you are a SDB plan member at the time of your death. For more information, please visit the Supplementary Death Benefit page.

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