Calculating pensions

How are pensions calculated? Is there a way to increase the amount? The orphan's pension and the pension for a disabled person's child are fixed amounts. All the other pensions and benefits are calculated on the basis of:

The employment earnings recorded under the contributor's name since 1966, the year the Québec Pension Plan started

The age at which the contributor's pension began.

Calculating with the contributor's needs in mind

Certain months can be deducted from a contributory period (months during which no contributions were made or in which contributions were low). This increases the average monthly pensionable earnings, which increases the amount of a pension.

Those months are:

• months for which a disability pension under the Québec Pension Plan or the Canada Pension Plan or an unreduced income replacement indemnity from the Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CSST) was paid
• starting in 1966¹, the months for which family benefits from Québec or Canada for a child under the age of 7 or the months during a contributor was eligible for such benefits but none were payable
• the months during which earnings were the lowest (up to 15% of the months in the contributory period)

1 Year in which the Québec Pension Plan came into effect