A children’s pension if you have no spouse but have eligible children

When a retired member without a spouse, or a spouse in receipt of a survivor pension dies, the eligible child (or children) for this benefit is their biological or adopted child who is:

• under 18 or,
• under 25 and a full-time student, or
• unable to support themselves due to disability (provided they became disabled before the age of 18 or before 25 if they were a full-time student).

If more than one child is eligible, the benefit is divided equally among them until one of them no longer meets the definition of a child, after which the payment is re-divided among the remaining eligible children.

Your beneficiary’s entitlement if you have no spouse or eligible children

Monthly survivor benefits are payable only to spouses and eligible children. Beneficiaries, however, may be entitled to a one-time payment under the minimum pension guarantee.

The minimum pension guarantee states that if, when the retired member dies, with no spouse or children, the total of the payments the retired member received does not equal 60 months' worth of their initial lifetime pension, the beneficiary receives the difference. Members whose jurisdiction of employment at retirement was Quebec had the option to select 120 months. The provision also applies if a spouse dies while collecting a spousal pension and the payments made to the original retired member plus the spouse total less than 60 times the retired member's initial monthly lifetime pension. In the case of the children's pension, the calculation is made once all of the children have stopped being eligible for the children’s pension.

The minimum pension guarantee is simply a guarantee that the pension payments paid to you and your survivors will total at least 60 times (or 120 times in Quebec, if that option was chosen) the amount of your first monthly lifetime pension payment.