Staff Pension Plan: Supplemental COLA

Staff Pension Plan: Supplemental COLA

We are pleased to share that University of Victoria Staff Pension Plan Pensioners aged 66 and over will be receiving a supplemental Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) in 2023.

This represents an additional 3.3% increase from the 3.0% Cost Of Living Adjustment, which took effect January 1. The total pension increase for pensioners aged 66 and over will align with the assessed Cost Of Living at 6.3%.

Under the provisions of the UVic Staff Pension Plan, COLA is capped at 3% annually. Plan documents allow for the possibility of supplemental payments for pensioners 66 years of
age or older. For pensioners under this age threshold, any COLA amount over the 3% cap is rolled forward and applied in subsequent years wherein the cost of living is assessed at less than 3%.

The supplemental COLA increase of 3.3% is retroactive to January 1, 2023. For pensions that commenced partway through 2022, the increase is pro-rated.

Pensioners aged 66 and over will receive a lump sum payment on April 1 for the period of January to March 2023.The April 1 statement also reflects pensioners’ new pension amount with the supplemental increase. Pension payments from this date forward will reflect the additional COLA increase of 3.3%, amounting to a 6.3% total increase over 2022.

For pensioners in the Staff Pension Plan who are under the age of 66, the carry-over of 3.3% of additional COLA will be applied in years in which the COLA is assessed as being under 3%.

For more information about the Staff Pension Plan and plan provisions, please visit the Staff Pension Plan web pages.