Pension Benefits Standards Act, 1985

Marginal note:Provisions respecting locking-in

• 18 (1) Subject to subsections 23(5) and 25(4), a pension plan shall provide

  • (a) that no benefit provided under the plan is capable of being assigned, charged, anticipated or given as security or confers on a member or former member, that person’s personal representative or dependant or other person any right or interest therein that is capable of being assigned, charged, anticipated or given as security;

  • (b) that, except in the case of the unexpired period of a guaranteed annuity, no benefit described in section 16 or 17 is capable of being surrendered or commuted during the lifetime of the member or former member or that person’s spouse or common-law partner or confers on a member or former member, that person’s personal representative or dependant or other person any right or interest therein that is capable of being surrendered or commuted during the lifetime of the member or former member or that person’s spouse or common-law partner; and

  • (c) that, except as provided in section 26, a person who is entitled to a benefit described in section 16 or 17, or who would be so entitled if that person retired or ceased membership in the plan, is not permitted to withdraw any part of that person’s contributions to the plan, other than additional voluntary contributions, in respect of any period of membership in the plan on or after October 1, 1967 for which that person is entitled to a benefit described in section 16 or 17, and that any pension fund moneys attributable to those contributions shall be applied under the terms of the plan toward the payment of the benefit described in section 16 or 17, as the case may be.

• Marginal note:Optional provisions

  (2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), a pension plan may provide

  • (a) for payment to a member in partial discharge of the member’s rights under the plan, on or after cessation of membership in the plan before attaining pensionable age, of a lump sum not exceeding twenty-five per cent of the value of the deferred pension benefit referred to in subsection 17(3);

  • (b) that a member or former member who is entitled to a deferred pension benefit described in section 17 may, before the commencement of payment thereof, elect, or be authorized, to receive a payment or series of payments by reason of disability, as defined by the regulations, partly or wholly in lieu of the deferred pension benefit described in section 17; and

  • (c) that, if the pension benefit credit is less than 20% of the Year’s Maximum Pensionable Earnings for the calendar year in which a member ceases to be a member of the plan or dies, or any other percentage that may be prescribed, the pension benefit credit may be paid to the member or survivor, as the case may be.