Middle- and Higher-Income Canadians Face Greatest Retirement Shortfall Risk, Report Finds
A C.D. Howe Institute report released Tuesday finds that middle- and higher-income earners without pension coverage are most at risk of inadequate retirement income in Canada, even as the public pension system largely meets its poverty prevention goals.
Middle- and higher-income earners are the Canadians most at risk of coming up short of money once they retire, according to a report released on Tuesday by the C.D. Howe Institute.
Researchers David Boisclair and Pierre-Carl Michaud authored the report analyzing how well Canada’s pension system serves seniors. Their findings indicate that those in middle- and higher-income brackets who lack pension coverage face the highest risk of inadequate income replacement upon retirement.
Despite these concerns, the report notes that Canada's public pension system — which includes the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Quebec Pension Plan (QPP), Old Age Security (OAS), and Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) — is doing pretty well in meeting its goals to replace income and keep seniors out of poverty.
However, Boisclair and Michaud identified emerging cracks in the Canadian retirement system that need fixing, pointing to the specific vulnerability of earners without supplemental pension coverage.