General eligibility

You must be an active member of the College Pension Plan to apply.

You may choose to buy more than one period or a partial period. The service will be allocated starting with the most recent period and working backward.

Past service with a former registered pension plan (RPP) eligibility

You may be eligible to buy past service for time you worked in Canada and participated in one of the following types of RPPs:

• Defined benefit (DB)
• Defined contribution (DC)
• Specified multi-employer plan (SMEP)

If you choose to buy service, you must remove your benefit from the former RPP. If the benefit has already been transferred to another RPP, you need to apply through the more recent plan—not the original.

You can’t buy DB service earned before 1991. However, you may be able to buy service before 1991 from a DC plan or SMEP if the funds are paid directly to the College Pension Plan.

If your former spouse is entitled to a share of your pension, the benefit must be divided before you can buy service. You may only purchase your share.

You cannot buy past service from the following pension plans:

• Canada Pension Plan
• Quebec Pension Plan
• Saskatchewan Pension Plan
• Individual pension plans
• Any plan where the pension is already in pay

Past service with a College Pension Plan employer eligibility

You may be eligible to buy this type of past service if:

• You worked for a plan employer before they joined the plan for your employee class.
  • Not all employee classes are included when an employer joins the plan. For example, if you worked in an administrative role before the employer joined for “faculty only,” you wouldn’t be eligible to buy that past service until the employer joined the pension plan for administrative staff. For more information on employee classes, please contact your employer.
• You worked for a plan employer but chose not to participate in the plan.
  • If your enrolment was not mandatory and you signed a waiver to “opt-out” of contributing.

You may be eligible to buy past service if you were on long-term disability or a leave of absence during these periods.

Note: If you contributed to another RPP during this time, you must apply to buy past service with a former RPP instead.