The UBC Staff Pension Plan (SPP) pays you a lifetime pension when you retire. When Plan funding allows, a cost-of-living adjustment (also known as COLA, “post-retirement indexing” or “inflation adjustment”) is applied annually to your pension payments. This is intended to help your basic pension benefit keep pace with increases to costs of living.
The level of COLA applied to SPP pensions is determined by the Actuarial Valuation
Every three years, the Plan undergoes an actuarial valuation (a financial checkup) performed by the Plan’s actuary. This checkup includes a Benefits/Funding Test which helps determine the level of COLA that the Plan can afford to pay. As a target benefit plan, the SPP uses inflation protection as the first lever to keep the Plan sustainable.
The most recent actuarial valuation (as at December 31, 2022) determined that the Plan can support a COLA at 70% of inflation for 2024 to 2026. The next valuation, as at December 31, 2025, will reassess this level, which may stay the same, decrease or increase depending on the Plan’s financial situation at the time.
Although future cost-of-living adjustments are not guaranteed, every adjustment you receive becomes part of your pension going forward. This allows your pension payments to increase over time with future inflation adjustments.
How is the SPP COLA calculated?
Each year, the SPP uses the average of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the 12-month period ending in October, and compares it to the average for the same period the previous year. This determines the inflation rate, and it matches the method and timing of Canada Pension Plan indexing. To calculate the COLA, this inflation rate is then multiplied by the Plan’s current indexing level, which is 70% of inflation (as described above).
For example, here is how the 2026 COLA is calculated:
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Step 1: We determine the inflation rate:
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Step 2: We use this inflation rate to determine the COLA for the year:
The COLA applied to your pension payments is shown on your annual pensioner statement.
Members who have been retired for less than 12 months will receive a prorated COLA based on the number of months retired, and will receive the full COLA the following year.
Historical UBC SPP COLA
The following table shows the COLA applied to SPP pension payments over the last 10 years (effective January 1):
| Year | SPP COLA |
| 2026 | 1.40% |
| 2025 | 1.82% |
| 2024 | 3.08% |
| 2023 | 3.25% |
| 2022 | 1.35% |
| 2021 | 0.50% |
| 2020 | 0.95% |
| 2019 | 1.15% |
| 2018 | 0.75% |
| 2017 | 0.70% |
Note: If the cost of living decreased over a 12-month period, the calculation of COLA would produce a negative amount. However, this would not result in a pension decrease. In this case, pension amounts would remain unchanged, and no adjustment would be applied that year.
