Your parent's own money: pensions, top-ups and Ontario programs

Marie-Claire Lavoie is sixty-three, a school secretary in Sudbury. Every Saturday she drives to her father's house with groceries and sorts his mail at the kitchen table. Gilles is eighty-nine, a retired nickel miner, widowed two years, and still unbeatable at cribbage. But the brown envelopes are piling up, and Marie-Claire keeps wondering whether he's getting everything he's owed.

So here's the question. What might an older parent in Ontario be missing, and what arrives on its own versus what needs an application?

This is general information, not financial advice, and amounts change, some every three months. For July to September 2026, Old Age Security pays up to $751.97 a month at sixty-five to seventy-four, and more from seventy-five. The Guaranteed Income Supplement adds up to $1,123.17 a month for a single senior with a low income.

The Canada Pension Plan works differently. It depends on what your parent paid in, and on when they start it. If someone applies after sixty-five, back payments are limited to twelve months, so a late application can cost real money. Service Canada handles OAS, the supplement and CPP, and can tell your parent exactly what they're getting.

Two Ontario programs are automatic. GAINS pays low-income seniors who get OAS and the Guaranteed Income Supplement up to $92 a month for a single senior, in the 2026 benefit year. And the Ontario Drug Benefit starts at sixty-five, with a $100 yearly deductible, then up to $6.11 a prescription. But the Seniors Co-Payment Program, which lowers that for low incomes, has to be applied for.

Others need a form or a tax return. Ontario's Seniors Dental Care Program is for low-income seniors. The federal dental plan has no age limit. It's for people with no dental insurance who file taxes, with a family income under $90,000. The senior homeowners' property tax grant, up to $500 for the 2025 tax year, is claimed with the tax return. So is the Seniors Care at Home Tax Credit.

That last one is for people seventy or older. It gives back up to $1,500 of medical expenses a year, and it's gone once family income reaches $65,000. Several of these programs only reach your parent if they file a tax return every year, even with a small income.

Now, their side. Money is private, and for many people of Gilles's generation, pride is tied up in never asking for help. Opening his mail without asking can feel like a takeover, even when you mean well. So ask first. Try, would you like a hand going through these, or would you rather I just sat with you while you do it?

Let's change one fact. Gilles has a good company pension from the mine. Now the low-income programs, like the supplement, GAINS and the property tax grant, probably drop away. Instead, the number to know is the Old Age Security recovery tax, often called the clawback. It takes back 15% of income above $95,323, for the 2026 income year.

The mistake families make is assuming it's all automatic. Some of it is. Some needs a form, some needs a tax return, and some has a time limit that quietly costs money.

Here's the rule, in one breath. Find out what comes in, what's automatic and what needs an application, and do it with your parent, not around them.

This week, with permission, list what arrives each month and where it comes from. Next time, keeping your own job: leaves, EI and your rights at work.