CPP and OAS

I know that the government has announced that the age will rise to 67 in a gradual manner for OAS in ten years time, but what I would like to see is the government reward people for putting off retirement.   I know this has been done to some extent by allowing people to put off collecting OAS till 70 but that is not enough.

I think it is important to find ways to keep people in the active work force for much longer.   Too many people reach retirement and decline because they no longer have their career.   It also means we are letting huge amounts of institutional knowledge and experience evaporate.   This is a resource we are wasting.   We also need to ensure as a society that more than 60% of the total population is in the workforce.

I would like to see the government allow people to put off collecting OAS or CPP for as long as they like but in return increase both payments after retirement.   I would also like to see the government let people put off cashing in their RRSPs longer, let people keep the money in an RRSP till they are 80 or older.

In an ideal world I would like to see a shift from the current system for CPP and make CPP individual accounts.   This would mean you have to pay into CPP but it would go into an account for you.   This means could like CPP and RRSPs to some extent.   It would important to make anything in the CPP account very safe for the future and not something you can take out.   I would also allow people to overpay into their CPP and then stop paying when they reach a level that would provide them with a maximum CPP payment in the future.