Is My Mother Entitled To A Survivor’s Pension After My Dad’s Death?

At Wagg Funeral Home, we get questions from veteran families about whether they are eligible for a survivor’s pension.

About The Survivor’s Pension Plan

In the Canada Pension Plan, a survivor's pension is the monthly payment made to a deceased contributor's lawful spouse or common-law partner. For your mother to qualify for the survivor's pension, she must:

• Be lawfully married to a deceased CPP participant.
• Be the spouse or the common-law partner of a deceased CPP participant. A common-law partner is defined by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) as an individual of either sex that has lived with the person in a conjugal relationship for a minimum of one year.
• If she was a legally separated spouse and the deceased had no common-law partner, she could be eligible for this compensation.

Other Eligibility Criteria Are As Follows:

Your mother must have been married to a military member who passed away while on active duty, active duty instruction, or inactive duty instruction, or Married the Veteran before January 1, 1957/Married your father at least a year prior to his death. If she previously lost a CPP survivor’s benefit because she remarried, she will have to contact Canada Pension Plan to determine if she is now eligible.

• If she was widowed more than once, only one survivor's pension, she will receive only the larger amount
• If she remarries the pension will still continue.
• She might also qualify for certain other CPP benefits

Apart from the CPP survivor’s pension, she may also be eligible to receive:

• Death benefit
• Some benefits for children under the age of 25

If you need any information about our funeral services, feel free to call us and speak with the funeral director at Wagg Funeral Home. Our funeral director will help you preplan a funeral and provide information about the different services available.