RREGOP Deferred Pension: Leaving at 54 or at 55

Nadia and Martin work at the same cégep, a public college, in Rimouski. Both have 25 years of service in the RREGOP, an average salary of $62,000 and the same plan: leave their jobs around 55 and collect their pension at 60. Nadia leaves the day after she turns 55. Martin leaves the day before.

At 60, under the rules Retraite Québec publishes, Nadia collects $31,000 a year. Martin collects $14,105. How can one day leave him with less than half until 65, and 30% less for the rest of his life?

If you have children or grandchildren in Quebec, you know a similar rule. To start kindergarten (maternelle), a child has to turn 5 by September 30. A child born on October 1 starts a year later, and the kindergarten cutoff keeps them in a different group year after year. The RREGOP has its own cutoff: whether you are 55 on the day you leave your job.

Immediate or deferred pension: the day you leave decides

Since July 1, 2019, the RREGOP pays your pension without a reduction if you meet one of three criteria: age 61, 35 years of service, or age 60 with the 90-factor. You meet the 90-factor when your age and your years of service add up to 90. If you are at least 55 when you leave your job and meet none of them, your pension is reduced by 0.5% for each month you are early, or 6% a year, permanently.

Those months are counted up to the nearest criterion, and they are counted as if you had kept working. Retraite Québec shows how with Sylvain's case: he retires at 58 with 29 years of service. He is two years short of the 90-factor, because at 60 he would have had 31 years of service. That makes 24 months at 0.5% each: a 12% reduction.

You don't have to claim it the day you leave. If you leave entitled to a reduced pension, you can wait until you qualify for an unreduced pension and claim it then.

Before 55, the rule is different. If you leave with at least 2 years of service and fewer than 35, your pension becomes deferred: unreduced only at 65. You can claim it from 55, but with 0.5% less for every month before 65, also for life. Unlike Sylvain's case, the years you would have kept working don't count here: the reduction is always measured to 65.

What about QPP coordination? It is a reduction of your RREGOP pension, and it doesn't depend on when you claim the QPP. Say Nadia and Martin both claim their QPP at 60. Nadia, with an immediate pension, keeps collecting her $31,000 from the RREGOP until 65, and only then does the $10,850 come off. Martin, with a deferred pension, has the coordination deducted from his first payment, at 60, reduced by the same 30% as his pension: $7,595 instead of $10,850. That is his reduction for life: it doesn't grow at 65, and his pension stays at $14,105.

Nadia and Martin: same career, two pensions

Nadia leaves at age 55, with 25 years of service and the $62,000 average salary they both have. Had she kept working, she would have had 30 years of service at 60, and 60 plus 30 makes 90. That's why she collects her pension unreduced at 60, and QPP coordination only reaches her at 65.

Martin has the same 25 years of service and the same salary, but he leaves the day before he turns 55, so his pension is deferred. Claiming it at 60 means claiming it five years before 65: 60 months at 0.5%, or 30% less.

For both of them, coordination is calculated on their salary. Their salary is below the average of the YMPE, the ceiling on earnings that pay into the QPP, over their last five years. For someone leaving at the end of 2026, that average is $69,180.

These are two sample calculations, under the 2026 rules from Retraite Québec, in 2026 dollars and without indexation. Both have the same five years as their best and their last. Their base pension is 2% × 25 years × $62,000, or $31,000, and their coordination is 0.7% × 25 years × $62,000, or $10,850 before any reduction.

From 60 to 65, Martin collects $16,895 less a year. From 65, it is $6,045 less a year, for life. If he waits until 65 to claim it, he collects $20,150, the same as Nadia from that age, but he gets nothing between 60 and 65.

His deferred pension has one advantage: while he waits, it is fully indexed from the January 1 after he leaves until the year he starts collecting it. That protects its value against inflation, but it doesn't bring 65 any closer.

The day you start collecting decides how much your pension is reduced. The day you leave decides which rules apply.

What if you have more or fewer years of service?

If you leave at 55, the age at which your pension is unreduced depends on your years of service. Count the years you would have if you kept working, as in Sylvain's case. Whichever of Retraite Québec's three criteria arrives first sets the age at which you can collect without a reduction.

For example, if you leave at 55 with 32 years of service, you would reach 35 years of service at 58, and from that age your pension is unreduced. The 90-factor only counts from age 60. If you leave before 55 with fewer than 35 years of service, your pension is deferred and the answer is always the same: 65.

With 35 years of service or more, the age-55 cutoff doesn't affect you. That criterion has no minimum age, and the deferred pension only applies below 35 years of service. If you started working at 18 with no breaks, you reach 35 years of service at 53, and from that day you can leave without a reduction. These figures are the RREGOP's: other employer plans have their own rules for leaving.

If you leave before 55: what you can still choose

If you leave before 55 with at least 2 years of service and fewer than 35, Retraite Québec offers you two options.

Collect the deferred pension. Unreduced at 65, or from 55 with the 6% a year reduction Martin faced. Choosing between those ages is the same question you ask about the QPP, and we cover it in early or deferred retirement.

Transfer its value to a LIRA or a LIF. A LIRA is a locked-in retirement account, and a LIF is a life income fund. What gets transferred is the actuarial value of your deferred pension, indexed and coordinated, or your contributions with interest if they add up to more. You must have left your job at least 210 days earlier to request it.

There is also a deadline: before you turn 55, or within 12 months after you leave if you left between 54 and 55, like Martin. After that, you are left with the deferred pension.

Which one makes more sense? Retraite Québec asks you to compare your age, the amount of your deferred pension, its indexation and, above all, the return you could earn on the transferred money. With the pension, the plan carries the investment risk. With the LIRA or the LIF, you do.

If you leave at 55 or later: watch the date of your application

Nadia has her own dates to watch. If she waits until 60 and applies once she already qualifies for an unreduced pension, Retraite Québec pays it retroactively from the day she qualified.

If she wants to collect it earlier, reduced, a different deadline applies. If she applies within 60 days after leaving, she collects it from the day she left, 30% lower, because she is five years short of 60. If she applies at 57, more than 60 days after leaving, Retraite Québec pays it from the date of her application, with nothing for the two years before. Her reduction is also calculated from that date: since she is three years short of 60, it falls to 18%.

That 60-day window matters for something else too. Within 60 days after you leave, you can transfer money from your RRSP to the RREGOP to lower or remove the reduction on your pension. If you have little in your RRSP, the reason may be what box 52 takes from your RRSP room.

If what you want at 54 is to work less, leaving isn't the only way out. Retraite Québec describes ways to reduce your hours without affecting the amount of your pension, even if your salary drops. Staying in the plan a few more months keeps you on the 55 side of the cutoff.

In AuraPlan, the plan applies the immediate or deferred rules based on your age and years of service on the day you leave your job. Moving that date by a month can change the pension you see.

Nadia and Martin had the same career, at the same cégep, with the same salary. The only thing that changed was the day they left. In kindergarten, a one-day difference shows for a few years. In the RREGOP it shows for life, and unlike the child, you're the one who picks the date.