Old Age Security Act (R.S.C., 1985, c. O-9)

Spouses and Common-law Partners

Marginal note:Information required with application for supplement

• 15 (1) Every person by whom an application for a supplement in respect of a payment period is made shall, in the application, state whether the person has or had a spouse or common-law partner at any time during the payment period or in the month before the first month of the payment period, and, if so, the name and address of the spouse or common-law partner and whether, to the person’s knowledge, the spouse or common-law partner is a pensioner.

• Marginal note:Statement if application waived

  (1.1) If the requirement for an application for payment of a supplement for any month has been waived under subsection 11(4) for a person who did not have a spouse or common-law partner immediately before the last payment period in respect of which a supplement was paid or, if no supplement was ever paid to the person, immediately before the last payment period in respect of which an application for payment of a supplement was received but who has a spouse or common-law partner immediately before the current payment period, the person shall notify the Minister without delay of the date of that change, the name and address of the spouse or common-law partner and whether, to the person’s knowledge, the spouse or common-law partner is a pensioner.

• Marginal note:Statement by spouse or common-law partner

  (2) Subject to subsections (3), (4.1) and (4.2), where a person makes an application for a supplement in respect of a payment period and the person has or had a spouse or common-law partner at any time during the payment period or in the month before the first month of the payment period, the application shall not be considered or dealt with until such time as

  • (a) the applicant’s spouse or common-law partner files a statement in prescribed form of the spouse’s or common-law partner’s income for the base calendar year;

  • (b) an application for a supplement in respect of the current payment period is received from the applicant’s spouse or common-law partner; or

  • (c) the income of the applicant’s spouse or common-law partner for the base calendar year is estimated under subsection 14(1.1).

• Marginal note:Waiver — subsection (1)

  (2.1) The Minister may waive the requirement to submit the information described in subsection (1) if that information has been submitted to the Minister in a joint application referred to in subsection 19(4).

• Marginal note:Waiver — paragraph (2)(a)

  (2.2) The Minister may waive the requirement to file a statement under paragraph (2)(a) if the information has been made available to the Minister under this Act, and, if that is the case, the statement is deemed to have been filed for the purposes of this Part.

• Marginal note:Notice of intent

  (2.3) If the Minister intends to waive the requirement for an application in respect of a person under subsection 11(3.1) and the person has a spouse or common-law partner, the Minister shall notify the spouse or common-law partner in writing of that intention and provide the spouse or common-law partner with the information regarding them on which the Minister intends to rely to approve the payment of a supplement.

• Marginal note:Inaccuracies

  (2.4) The person’s spouse or common-law partner shall, before the day on which the person attains 65 years of age, file with the Minister a statement in which the spouse or common-law partner corrects any inaccuracies in the information provided by the Minister under subsection (2.3).

• Marginal note:Direction by Minister where no statement filed by spouse or common-law partner or where spouses or common-law partners living apart

  (3) Where an application for a supplement in respect of any payment period has been made by a person, the Minister may, after any investigation of the circumstances that the Minister considers necessary, direct that the application be considered and dealt with as though the person did not have a spouse or common-law partner on the last day of the previous payment period, in any case where

  • (a) no application or statement as described in subsection (2) has been filed by or received from the spouse or common-law partner of the person and no estimate of the income of the spouse or common-law partner of the person has been made under subsection 14(1.1); or

  • (b) the Minister is satisfied that the person, as a result of circumstances not attributable to the person or the spouse or common-law partner, was not living with the spouse or common-law partner in a dwelling maintained by the person or the spouse or common-law partner at the time the application was made.

• Marginal note:Continuing direction

  (3.1) A direction made under subsection (3) in respect of a payment period is deemed to be a direction made in respect of every subsequent payment period, but the Minister may, after any investigation of the circumstances that the Minister considers necessary, cancel the direction.

• Marginal note:Direction — spouse or common-law partner of incarcerated person

  (3.2) The Minister may, after any investigation that the Minister considers necessary, direct, in respect of any month in a payment period, that an application for a supplement be considered and dealt with as though the applicant did not have a spouse or common-law partner on the last day of the previous payment period if the Minister is satisfied that, at any time during the preceding month, the applicant was the spouse or common-law partner of an incarcerated person described in subsection 5(3), except for the month in which the applicant’s spouse or common-law partner is released.

• Marginal note:Continuing direction

  (3.3) A direction made under subsection (3.2) continues to apply in respect of every subsequent month until the month before the month in which the spouse or common-law partner is released. However, the Minister may, after any investigation of the circumstances that the Minister considers necessary, cancel the direction.

• Marginal note:Notification of release

  (4) Every applicant who is the subject of a direction under subsection (3.2) shall inform the Minister without delay of their spouse or common-law partner’s release.

• Marginal note:Direction by Minister where spouses separated

  (4.1) Where an application for a supplement in respect of a payment period that commences after June 30, 1999 has been made by a person, the Minister, if satisfied that the person is separated from the person’s spouse, having been so separated for a continuous period of at least three months, exclusive of the month in which the spouses became separated, shall direct that the application be considered and dealt with as though the person had ceased to have a spouse at the end of the third such month.

• Marginal note:Where applicant ceases to have a common-law partner otherwise than by death

  (4.2) Where an application for a supplement in respect of a payment period that commences after June 30, 1999 is made by a person who at any time in the payment period ceases to have a common-law partner otherwise than by reason of the common-law partner’s death, the supplement paid to the person, for any month in that payment period after the third month following the month in which the person ceased to have a common-law partner, shall be calculated as though the person did not have a common-law partner on the last day of the previous payment period.

• Marginal note:Review of direction where statement subsequently filed by spouse or common-law partner

  (5) Where, after the Minister has made a direction under subsection (3) with respect to an application for a supplement made in respect of a payment period that ends before July 1, 1999, a statement or application as described in subsection (2) is filed by or received from the applicant’s spouse or common-law partner, the Minister may review the direction previously made and direct that any supplement paid to the applicant or the spouse or common-law partner for any month in that payment period after the month in which the review is made be calculated either on the basis that the applicant and the spouse or common-law partner were spouses or common-law partners of each other on the last day of the previous payment period or as though they had not been spouses or common-law partners on that day, according as the direction may specify.

• Marginal note:Review of direction where statement subsequently filed by spouse or common-law partner

  (5.1) Where, after the Minister has made a direction under subsection (3) based on paragraph (3)(a), with respect to an application for a supplement made in respect of a payment period that commences after June 30, 1999 and a statement or application as described in subsection (2) is filed by or received from the applicant’s spouse or common-law partner, the Minister shall review the direction previously made and shall direct that any supplement paid to the applicant or the spouse or common-law partner for months in that payment period after the month in which the review is completed be calculated on the basis that the applicant and the spouse or common-law partner were spouses or common-law partners of each other on the last day of the previous payment period, unless there is some other reason for a direction to be made under subsection (3).

• (6) [Repealed, 2000, c. 12, s. 194]

• Marginal note:Application for supplement in certain cases

  (6.1) Where an application for a supplement in respect of a payment period that commences after June 30, 1999 is made by

  • (a) a person who did not have a spouse or common-law partner immediately before a particular month in the payment period but has a spouse or common-law partner at the end of that month,

  • (b) a person in respect of whom a direction is made under subsection (3) based on paragraph (3)(b) who no longer meets the conditions set out in that paragraph, or

  • (c) a person described in subsection (4.1) who ceases to be separated from the person’s spouse,

  the calculation of the supplement shall be made, for any month after the month in which the person began to have a spouse or common-law partner, as though the person had a spouse or common-law partner on the last day of the previous payment period.

• (7) [Repealed, 2000, c. 12, s. 194]

• Marginal note:Where applicant ceases to have a spouse

  (7.1) Where an application for a supplement in respect of a payment period that commences after June 30, 1999 is made by a person who at any time in the payment period ceases to have a spouse, the supplement paid to the person, for any month in that payment period after the month in which the person ceased to have a spouse, shall be calculated as though the person did not have a spouse on the last day of the previous payment period.

• Marginal note:Where applicant ceases to have a common-law partner by reason of death

  (7.2) Where an application for a supplement in respect of a payment period that commences after June 30, 1999 is made by a person who at any time in the payment period ceases to have a common-law partner by reason of the common-law partner’s death, the supplement paid to the person, for any month in that payment period after the month in which the common-law partner died, shall be calculated as though the person did not have a common-law partner on the last day of the previous payment period.

• Marginal note:Saving provision

  (8) Nothing in subsections (6.1) to (7.2) shall be construed as limiting or restricting the authority of the Minister to make a direction under subsections (3) to (5.1).

• Marginal note:Notification of change

  (9) Every applicant shall inform the Minister without delay if they separate from, or cease to have, a spouse or common-law partner, or if they had a spouse or common-law partner at the beginning of a month, not having had a spouse or common-law partner at the beginning of the previous month.

Payment of Supplement

Marginal note:Consideration of application or waiver

• 16 (1) The Minister shall, without delay after receiving an application for payment of a supplement under subsection 11(2) or after waiving the requirement for an application for payment of a supplement under subsection 11(3.1) or (4), as the case may be, consider whether the applicant is entitled to be paid a supplement, and may approve payment of a supplement and fix its amount, or may determine that no supplement may be paid.

• Marginal note:Notification of applicant

  (2) Where particulars of the basis on which the amount of any supplement that may be paid to an applicant was fixed by the Minister are requested by the applicant or where the Minister determines that no supplement may be paid to the applicant, the Minister shall forthwith in writing notify the applicant of the basis on which that amount was fixed or of the decision that no supplement may be paid to the applicant and the Minister’s reasons therefor, as the case may be.

Marginal note:Payment of supplement to be made in arrears

17 Payment of a supplement for any month shall be made in arrears at the end of the month, except that where payment of a supplement in respect of months in any payment period is approved after the end of the month for which the first payment of the supplement may be made, payments of the supplement for the month in which payment of the supplement is approved and for months before that month may be made at the end of that month or at the end of the month immediately after that month.

Adjustment of Payments

Marginal note:Adjustment of payments of supplements

18 Where it is determined that the income for a base calendar year (in this section referred to as the “actual income”) of an applicant for a supplement does not accord with the income of the applicant (in this section referred to as the “shown income”) calculated on the basis of a statement or an estimate made under section 14, the following adjustments shall be made:

• (a) if the actual income exceeds the shown income, any amount by which the supplement paid to the applicant for months in the payment period exceeds the supplement that would have been paid to the applicant for those months if the shown income had been equal to the actual income shall be deducted and retained out of any subsequent payments of supplement or pension made to the applicant, in any manner that may be prescribed; and

• (b) if the shown income exceeds the actual income, there shall be paid to the applicant any amount by which the supplement that would have been paid to the applicant for months in the payment period if the actual income had been equal to the shown income exceeds the supplement paid to the applicant for those months.