Canadians, including retirees, support trimming OAS for well-off seniors: poll

OTTAWA — A new poll shows that three-quarters of Canadians, and most retirees, support scaling back Old Age Security (OAS) for seniors making more than $100,000 per year.

The poll, conducted by Research Co. for advocacy group Generation Squeeze, finds that 73 per cent of Canadians support targeting OAS to households with incomes below $100,000. The proposal was supported by 79 per cent of Liberal voters, 77 per cent of Conservative voters and 78 per cent of NDP voters.

Some three-quarters of retirees who took the poll also said they supported the change.

Under the current rules , retired couples with incomes exceeding $180,000 may qualify for the full $18,000 annual benefit. Just four per cent of seniors are excluded from OAS altogether because their incomes are too high.

The results of the new poll are largely consistent with a poll Research Co. did for Generation Squeeze in 2024.

Paul Kershaw, the head of Generation Squeeze and a professor of public health at the University of British Columbia, says the polling shows that OAS isn’t the political third-rail many politicians think it is.

“These new national poll data should reset how federal leaders think about OAS. Canadians are ready to reform it to deliver one of the most ambitious improvements to income security in decades,” said Kershaw.

Generation Squeeze is proposing to scale back OAS for the roughly 20 per cent of senior households with incomes above $100,000. The proposal would keep OAS at the same level or higher for the remaining 80 per cent and boost the benefit for singles.

The group says this one change would save Canadians $7 billion per year.

OAS is the single biggest line item in the federal budget, totalling $85.5 billion in 2025-26. It is expected to cost more than $100 billion annually by 2030 as more Canadians reach retirement age.

The poll also found that some six in ten Canadians support phasing out the Age Amount and Pension Income tax credits, which Generation Squeeze says will save Canadians an additional $7 billion annually.

The polling results are based on an online study of 1,001 Canadian adults, conducted from March 12 to March 14, 2026. Data were statistically weighted according to Canadian census figures for age, gender and region.

Online polls are not considered representative samples and thus don’t carry a margin of error. However, the poll document provides an estimated margin, for comparison purposes, of  plus or minus 3.1 percentage points, 19 times in 20.

National Post rmohamed@postmedia.com

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