The Old Age Security (OAS) program is the Government of Canada’s largest pension program. It is funded out of the Government’s general tax revenues, which means that beneficiaries do not pay into it directly. This program provides eligible seniors with basic income in retirement through the OAS Pension and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).

The number of OAS beneficiaries has risen by 31 per cent over the past decade, placing unprecedented pressures on the OAS program. It is with these demographic and program pressures in mind that Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) developed the OAS Service Improvement Strategy. An integral part of the strategy is the automatic enrolment of eligible individuals for OAS benefits, eliminating the need for many seniors to apply in writing. The first two phases of the project have been implemented and have enabled ESDC to automatically enrol approximately 60 per cent of all new OAS Pensioners. Additionally, ESDC will begin to automatically enrol individuals for the GIS starting in November 2017.