Choosing a retirement date can involve many important decisions and options. We're here to help you understand those options.
"Normal retirement age" in the Plan is 65 years old, but you can retire as early as your 55th birthday or as late as the end of the year in which you turn 71. Your retirement date can have an effect on the amount of pension you receive, as outlined on this page.
The earliest a vested PSPP member can begin their pension is age 55. Retiring earlier than the normal retirement age of 65 means you will receive a reduced monthly pension—unless you have enough pensionable service to meet the 85 factor (described below).
You may have the option of starting your pension earlier than age 55 if you become disabled and stop contributing to PSPP.
The 85 factor is calculated by adding together your age and years of pensionable service at retirement. If the total equals at least 85 points, you're entitled to an unreduced PSPP pension as early as your 55th birthday.
If you retire early—before age 65 or before reaching your 85 factor—your monthly pension amount will be reduced.
The early retirement reduction amount is 3% per year multiplied by the lower number of:
Here is an example of how early retirement reduction is calculated:
In this example, if the member waited to start their pension until age 65 (the normal retirement age in the Plan) or reaching 85 points, their unreduced pension would be $1,000 per month ($12,000 annually).
Based on the pension reduction calculated in STEP 2, the member's pension will be subject to an early retirement reduction of 21%, which results in their pension being $790 per month ($9,480 annually).
You must start your PSPP pension no later than December 31 of the year in which you turn 71. In this situation, you don't have to stop working for your PSPP employer, but once you start receiving a pension from PSPP, you no longer contribute to the Plan.
The date you choose to begin your pension is up to you and can depend on a lot of factors, such as the health of you and your pension partner, your financial situation, the standard of living you want in retirement, and how long you want to continue working.
The amount of your monthly pension will be different depending on the date you choose to start your pension. Your selected date will determine your age at retirement and may impact your highest average salary and how much service you’ve accumulated in the Plan at retirement. These are key components that are used in the calculation of your pension. Your final monthly pension also depends on the pension option you choose.
Use the Pension Estimator or the Pension Projection Calculator in the online portal, Your Pension Profile, to estimate how different retirement dates and pension options impact your monthly pension.
To find out more about retiring, read Retirement Planning.
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This website is designed to outline as simply as possible the main features of the Public Service Pension Plan (PSPP). It is for information purposes only and is not intended to provide you with specific financial, legal, investment, pension or tax advice.
Alberta Pensions Services Corporation (APS), PSPP's pension benefit service provider, strives to ensure that all information contained on this website is accurate. However, your pension entitlement is always limited by what is allowed by the pension plan rules and associated legislation (legislation), so any inaccuracy in, or misunderstanding of pension information arising from the content on this website cannot increase the benefits otherwise available to you under the legislation. In the event of any conflict between the legislation and this website, the legislation will govern.
You should not rely on the content on this website in making any decisions or taking any action with respect to your pension. Seek advice from a qualified financial advisor before relying on any speculative pension calculation or exercising any pension option.
THIS WEBSITE AND ANY DOCUMENTS ARE PROVIDED BY APS AND PSPP ON AN "AS IS" AND "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS. APS AND PSPP MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS OR WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, AS TO THE OPERATION OF THIS WEBSITE OR ANY ASPECT OF THE INFORMATION, CONTENT, MATERIALS, DOCUMENTS OR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES INCLUDED ON THIS WEBSITE. YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT YOUR USE OF THIS WEBSITE AND THE CONTENT THEREIN IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. TO THE FULL EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY APPLICABLE LAW, APS AND PSPP DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. APS AND PSPP DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE WEBSITE, ITS SERVERS, OR EMAIL SENT FROM APS, PSPP OR ITS AUTHORIZED AGENTS ARE FREE FROM VIRUSES OR OTHER HARMFUL COMPONENTS. APS AND PSPP DO NOT WARRANT THAT ACCESS TO THIS WEBSITE WILL BE CONTINUOUS OR WILL BE AVAILABLE AT ANY GIVEN TIME. APS AND PSPP WILL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES OF ANY KIND ARISING FROM THE USE OF THIS WEBSITE OR THE DOCUMENTS, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE, AND CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES.
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Communication by email over the Internet and other publicly accessible networks is not secure. Any information that you send by email may be lost, intercepted or altered while it is being transmitted. If you choose to send information to APS or PSPP by email or over the Internet, you do so at your own risk. APS and PSPP do not assume any liability for any damages you may experience, or costs you may incur, as a result of sending information by email or, should you request it, as a result of APS or PSPP sending information to you by email. This includes any such email that may contain your personal or confidential information.
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For more information about PSPP's privacy practices see our full privacy statement.
This website may contain links to third-party websites. These links have been provided solely as a convenience for you and do not constitute an endorsement by APS or PSPP of the content of such third-party sites.
Links to this website may also be provided from sites either known or unknown to APS or PSPP. Access to any other website linked to or from this website is at your own risk. APS and PSPP have not reviewed and are not responsible for the content of any third-party sites linked to or from this website and do not make any representations or warranties regarding the content or accuracy of materials on such third-party websites.
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Furthermore, any reproduction of any information contained in this website without the express written permission of APS and/or PSPP is prohibited by law. Any financial information, including any reports by the Auditor General of Alberta, contained on this website is unofficial information and should not be relied upon. The official versions of any financial reports are available from APS or PSPP.
Send legal notices to:
APS
Attention: Director, Legal Services
5103 Windermere Blvd. SW
Edmonton, AB T6W 0S9
Fax 780-425-6245
For all other related correspondence, please contact us.
By accessing and using this website, you agree that the laws of the Province of Alberta, Canada, without regard to principles of conflict of laws, will govern this website and any dispute of any kind that might arise between you and APS, PSPP, the APS Board and/or the Public Service Pension Board.
Updated February 2024
This Privacy Notice describes PSPP Corporation’s privacy policies and practices regarding its collection, use and disclosure of your personal data and sets forth your privacy rights. We recognize that information privacy is an ongoing responsibility, and so we will from time to time update this Privacy Notice as we undertake new personal data practices or adopt new privacy policies.
You can scroll down to read the Privacy Notice or use the links below to navigate to specific sections.
PSPP Corporation, in association with its pension benefit service provider Alberta Pensions Services Corporation (APS) are both committed to respecting the personal privacy of pension plan members by protecting the personal and financial information entrusted to us by providing responsive and focused member services including maintenance of this website. PSPP Corporation and APS have a Privacy Officer who is responsible for overall privacy governance including the importance of confidentiality and maintaining the privacy and security of your personal information. That commitment is fundamental to the way we do business.
Personal information collected within this website and by the PSPP Corporation is collected under the authority of section 40 of Schedule 2 of the Alberta Joint Governance of Public Sector Pension Plans Act for pension administration and may be used for website improvement, quality assurance surveys and voluntary focus groups. Social insurance numbers will be used for Canada Revenue Agency and identification purposes. If you have any questions regarding the collection of this information, contact the PSPP Member Services Centre at 1-877-453-1PSP (1777), or write to: 5103 Windermere Blvd. SW, Edmonton, AB T6W 0S9
PSPP Corporation collects information provided by you and your employer. In general, we collect and use information about you for pension administration purposes, to deliver member and pensioner (hereafter called “member”) benefits, to improve your member experience, and to keep you informed about your specific pension (e.g., member annual statements).
This website also collects information about the device you use to access our website, such as operating system, screen resolution, internet browser type and version, the webpage address from which you arrived, the date and time you accessed this website and the Internet Protocol (IP) address of your device to enhance security measures and protect your data. Once logged in to the site, your member identifier, age, and membership status is collected to improve the website's functionality, meet our members' needs and measure the effectiveness of our services.
Like many other websites, we collect information about our users' utilization and navigation of our website. This website uses simple text files, called 'cookies', to identify visitors who access this website and tracks their use. This information helps us to design our website to better suit our users' needs. When you access this website, cookies are created and temporarily placed on your computer. The cookie stores basic information about you and your use of this website. PSPP Corporation retains some of the information stored by the cookie, but only for the purposes of tracking website usage.
The cookies help gather statistical data such as the average time spent on a specific webpage. This kind of information provides us with insight on how to improve the design, content, and navigation of our website.
PSPP Corporation may use cookies as part of the functionality and security of a particular service. These cookies may include an encrypted persistent cookie installed on your device that contains information to help us verify you as our client and to help block unauthorized attempts to access your information through this website.
This information is necessary to assist PSPP Corporation in resolving any access problems that may arise. It is also necessary to monitor website usage and identify any unauthorized attempts to upload or change information, or otherwise cause damage.
We may also use your IP address to help diagnose problems with our server and to administer our website, analyze trends, track visitor movements around the website, and gather broad demographic information that assists us in identifying visitor preferences.
PSPP Corporation automatically collects information about your device's approximate physical location for the purpose of tracking website use by general geographic region.
In order to register for access to this secure website: you will be asked to provide personal identifying information, which may include: your name, e-mail address, Member Identifier number, date of birth, employer name, pension payment amount and the last four digits of your Social Insurance Number. You will create a login name and password and you will be asked to choose security questions and provide answers.
In order to log in to this secure website, you will be asked to provide personal identifying information, such as your login name, along with a password, and the answers to the security questions you previously provided.
It is up to you whether you wish to provide such personal information for these purposes. If you do not, you will not be able to register or login for access to this website and you will have to contact us by telephone, fax, in-person or through regular mail.
We use your personal and financial information for the purposes consistent with managing your pension, for example including but not limited to:
PSPP Corporation adheres to the requirements of provincial privacy legislation. Access to your information is restricted to employees who have a legitimate business purpose for accessing it.
Unauthorized access to and/or disclosure of member and pensioner information by an employee of PSPP Corporation is strictly prohibited. All employees are required to maintain the confidentiality of member information at all times and failing to do so will result in appropriate disciplinary measures, which may include dismissal.
PSPP Corporation shares information with APS who is the designated benefit service provider for your pension. APS is subject to and adheres to the requirements of the Alberta Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
We may use service providers to perform specialized services on our behalf. Our service providers may at times be responsible for processing or handling personal information. They are provided only the information necessary to perform these services. In addition, they are contractually obligated to protect the information in a manner that is consistent with Alberta privacy legislation, our privacy policies and security practices. Where possible, PSPP Corporation keeps all member data in Canada. There may be some cases where personal information is stored outside of Canada. To obtain specifics, please contact privacy@pspp.ca.
We are committed to keeping your personal information confidential. We do not sell or rent your personal information and will only share it as permitted or required by law, to comply with laws, regulations, subpoena(s) or court order(s).
We maintain physical, technical, and administrative safeguards to help protect the privacy of data and personally identifiable information you transmit through this website. We update and test our security technology on an ongoing basis. We restrict access to your personally identifiable information to those employees who need to know that information to provide benefits or services to you. We commit to taking appropriate disciplinary measures to enforce our employees' privacy responsibilities.
You have the right to request the correction of personal data held about you if you believe it is inaccurate or incomplete.
We do our utmost to ensure that the information we have about you is accurate and complete. As we make decisions based on the information that we have, we encourage you to help us keep your information current. If you can update the incorrect information yourself (e.g., address, beneficiaries, bank account), you should do so. If you require additional assistance, please inform us that you are challenging the accuracy of your data and want it corrected. You should:
In the normal course of business, you receive periodic access to information in the form of annual statements. This information is routinely available to you through mailings and/or this website.
You may request a copy of your pension file at any time, by making your request in writing through Secure Messages in Your Pension Plan (YPP). Depending on the information you seek, there may be costs associated with your request. To avoid delays in obtaining your information, please provide sufficient detail to permit us to identify you and the specific information that you are requesting.
Please note that there may be instances where access may be restricted as permitted or required by privacy legislation. Examples may include information that is subject to legal privilege, information containing confidential commercial information, and information relating to a third party. If applicable, we will advise you of the reasons for restricting access subject to any legal or regulatory limitations.
In the following paragraph, the term 'Administration' means PSPP Corporation, APS, His Majesty the King in right of the Province of Alberta (as represented by the President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance), and any of their respective directors, officers, employees, and agents.
Although extensive precautions have been taken to provide a secure internet environment, the Administration cannot guarantee the privacy or security of information that is sent or received using this website. The Administration will not be liable for any damages, losses, costs, or expenses, including, without limitation, direct, special, incidental, punitive or consequential damages, incurred by any person as a result of, or in any way connected with, any person's use of this website.
This Privacy Notice only addresses PSPP Corporation's use and disclosure of your personally identifiable information. As this website may contain links to other websites, please be aware that we are not responsible for the privacy practices of such other websites, and we are not liable for their misuse of personally identifiable information. We encourage you to be aware that when you go to another website you should carefully read its privacy statement.
For more information about any of the policies described above, please contact us:
By e-mail: privacy@pspp.ca
By telephone: (780) 391-3799