The Nursing Home and Related Industries Pension Plan ("NHRIPP") is a multi-employer target pension plan. More than 90,000 unionized, nursing and retirement home employees in Ontario, Alberta, and Prince Edward Island, now participate in the Plan.  The NHRIPP has many attractive features.

Government retirement programs alone may not be sufficient to support your lifestyle in retirement. Additionally, Canadians are living longer and are becoming increasingly concerned about the possibility of outliving their savings.  This concern often results in seniors maintaining a lower standard of living than they can afford. That’s where the NHRIPP comes in. The Plan pays a lifetime pension so its pensioners do not have to worry about outliving their savings.

Member and employer contribution rates are set by the applicable collective agreement. The total contribution rates range from 2% to 10.5%.  Your employer’s contribution rate can never be less than yours.  Since contribution rates are set in collective bargaining, you can increase your pension by negotiating higher contribution rates.

NHRIPP pensions are based on a formula including the total contributions made to the Plan on your behalf. The formula now produces a pension of $1.55 a month for every $100 in pension contributions received for you. Some members are also eligible to receive past service benefits of up to $186.20 a month in additional pension if they were working for their first contributing employer when it made its first contribution to the Plan. A formula-based pension is much more predictable than an RRSP or a defined contribution plan, for which benefits are based entirely on the performance of one’s investments.

The NHRIPP has many contributing employers in a common industry so you can move from one contributing employer to another and continue to grow your pension.

When you retire is up to you.  Once you are no longer working at a job which requires contributions to the Plan, you can start your pension as early as age 55 or as late as age 71.  

The NHRIPP will pay a death benefit to your spouse or beneficiary if you die before you start to receive your pension.  This death benefit is equal to the value of your accrued pension at the date of your death. A surviving spouse can elect to receive the death benefit as a monthly pension or a lump sum.

The Plan also provides a survivor pension payable to your eligible spouse if you predecease your spouse while in receipt of a joint and survivor pension.