Other Canada Pension Plan (CPP)

Decision

[1] The Canada Pension Plan (CPP) retirement pension of the Claimant, E. D., has been calculated correctly. This decision explains why I am dismissing the appeal.

Overview

[2] The Claimant is 75 years old. He has been in receipt of a CPP retirement pension since October 2006.  This was the month following his 60th birthday.

[3] In October 2020, the Claimant asked the Minister to reconsider how his retirement pension was calculated.^{Footnote 1}   He asked the Minister to exclude his years of disability coverage by his private disability insurer. The Minister maintained its original decision on reconsideration.^{Footnote 2} The Claimant appealed to the Social Security Tribunal.

[4] The Claimant says that he did not apply for CPP disability benefit when he went off work in 1993 because the amount would have been deducted from his private disability benefit.  ^{Footnote 3}

[5] The Minister says the law only allows it to exclude periods of disability from a claimant’s contributory period during which he had received a CPP disability pension. Although the Claimant received a private disability pension from 1994 to 2006, he did not receive CPP disability. ^{Footnote 4}

Form of hearing

[6] On July 19, 2021, I held a case conference. All parties attended the conference. 

[7] At the case conference the Claimant asked me to make a decision in writing following the conference and the Minister agreed. I decided this appeal based on the documents on file and the submissions I heard on July 19, 2021.

What I have to decide

[8] Has the Claimant's retirement pension been calculated correctly?

Reasons for my decision

Why the Claimant cannot have his retirement pension recalculated

[9] The Claimant is asking the Minister to recalculate his retirement pension.

[10] The Claimant does not dispute that the calculation of his retirement pension is correct in law. His position is that it is not fair that CPP was saved a significant amount of money because he did not apply for a disability pension. He is now penalized for this by receiving a lesser amount for his retirement pension.^{Footnote 5}

[11] He is asking me to correct this “great injustice”^{Footnote 6} by increasing the amount of his retirement pension. While I am sympathetic to the Claimant’s situation, I do not have the authority, on these facts, to increase the amount in his retirement pension by excluding the disability period when the Claimant received a private disability pension.   I cannot make exceptions to the rules of the CPP. I am a statutory decision-maker and am required to interpret and apply the rules as they are set out in the CPP. I cannot make decisions based on fairness, compassion, or special circumstances.^{Footnote 7}

Conclusion

[12] The Claimant is receiving the correct amount for his retirement pension.

[13] This means the appeal is dismissed.