The individual applied for OAS on March 1, 2013. His first payment was received in February 2014, the month after he turned 65.

In April of 2015 he realized that his entire OAS pension for the previous year was lost due to high earnings, and also that recent changes allowed deferral of receipt in exchange for higher payments. As such, a request to cancel it was submitted.

An individual has the ability to cancel a pension within six months of the commencement (i.e. the first payment). There is no specific provision that allows for an extension to this time limit.

The taxpayer cited various reasons why the application was not made in time, primarily in connection with his argument that the Government did not provide timely notification of this new possibility. In particular, he noted that he did not receive the letter sent out to those eligible to begin receipt in 2013 which explained the changes. Also, no notification of the new option was included in the application form nor in the letter he received advising him that his application was accepted.

Taxpayer loses
Since there was no provision allowing for an extension of time, the Court was not able to assist the taxpayer. The Court did, however, question whether the matter should have been dealt with under other provisions which allow the Government to take remedial action for denied benefits resulting from erroneous advice or administrative error.