Deferred Pensions

If you’re vested and leave your HOOPP employer, you can always choose to leave your benefits in HOOPP to collect later as a lifetime pension. This is called choosing a deferred pension.

The portion of your deferred pension based on contributory service built before 2006 receives annual inflation protection – even during the years before you are old enough to collect it. Any portion of your deferred pension based on contributory service built after 2005 will not receive a guaranteed inflation adjustment. However, inflation protection can be provided on an ad hoc basis at the discretion of HOOPP's Board of Trustees for post-2005 service.

You can begin collecting a deferred pension at age 60 without any early retirement reduction, or as early as age 55, usually with a reduction. A reduction is applied because a pension paid at an earlier age is usually paid for a longer period.

You'll also be entitled to a bridge benefit, payable to age 65 if you start to collect your deferred pension while aged 55 to 64.

Small pension rule

If your annual HOOPP deferred pension works out to less than 2% of the year's maximum pensionable earnings (YMPE) in the year you terminate your membership, HOOPP will pay your full pension entitlement to you as a one-time lump sum cash payment (minus applicable taxes), and you will not have the option of collecting a lifetime benefit from HOOPP. You can also move your funds directly, on a tax-sheltered basis, to either a RRSP or to another pension plan, if that plan will accept the funds.