Nobody sends you a single letter that says “here is everything that changes at 65,” because the changes come from different programs with different rules. Here is the order that works.
1. The month after you turn 64: look for the letter
Service Canada automatically enrols many Canadians for the Old Age Security pension and sends a letter saying so, with your planned start at 65. If that letter never arrives — common after moves, name changes, or time abroad — the job is yours: apply about six months before you want payments to start. Missing paperwork is not catastrophic (OAS can backdate up to 11 months), but it is entirely avoidable. Decide before you reply whether you actually want OAS at 65 or a larger pension later — deferring adds 0.6% per month to age 70, and the clawback guide shows when that trade is worth it.
2. Make the CPP decision on purpose
Your CPP retirement pension can start any month from 60 to 70 and never starts automatically. If you have not taken it yet, 65 is the moment to run the break-even math with your real numbers from My Service Canada Account, and our start-age calculator for the shape of the trade. Still working? If you are collecting CPP, contributions are mandatory until 65 and optional from 65 to 70 — form CPT30 is how you formally stop them.
3. GIS: the one worth actual money
If your income is modest, the Guaranteed Income Supplement can add up to $1,138.90 a month, tax-free, on top of OAS. It usually starts automatically with OAS if your tax return is filed — the supplement is calculated from it. Turning 65 with an unfiled return is the single most expensive paperwork error in the senior benefit system.
4. Know what stops and what converts
CPP disability converts automatically to a (usually smaller) retirement pension at 65 — plan for the drop, because it arrives without any action from you. The Allowance, which supports 60-to-64-year-old spouses of pensioners, ends at 65 as OAS takes over. Survivor benefits have their own combined-payment caps worth checking against your actual statement rather than any general table.
5. The quieter items
Most provinces layer a seniors’ drug benefit on at 65 with separate enrolment rules — check yours before your first prescription of the year, not after. Pension income splitting with a spouse becomes available once you receive eligible pension income and is set on each year’s tax return, no application. And set a calendar note for 71: your RRSP must convert to a RRIF (or be withdrawn) by December 31 of that year, which is a planning conversation to have at 69 or 70, not in a December panic at 71.