Choose the legal route before checking the date
This tool addresses application timing, not pension benefit dollars. It covers CPP relationship endings from 1 January 1987 onward. A legal divorce or annulment date is not the same as the date a still-married couple began living apart. An ended common-law union follows a different deadline. Choose the correct route before comparing the result with your documents.
The minimum cohabitation input is consecutive months living together, not the duration of the legal marriage on paper. Twelve months is the basic minimum for these modern routes. Service Canada determines whether the relationship evidence, eligible earnings periods and any agreements satisfy the actual rules. The tool does not convert a timing result into an approval.
Read earliest date and deadline separately
For a common-law separation beginning 1 January 2025, the ordinary separation-period date is 1 January 2026 and the ordinary application deadline is 1 January 2029. Checking on 31 December 2025 still shows a waiting period. A former partner’s death during the first year can change the earliest date, but it does not make the displayed standard 48-month deadline disappear.
A still-married separation normally requires 12 months apart. There is no ordinary deadline while the spouse is alive; if that spouse dies, the deadline is 36 months from death. A modern legal divorce route has no ordinary time limit in this model. A common-law late application with a living former partner’s written waiver is labelled for agency review, not automatically accepted.
The last year shown is not a benefit estimate
Service Canada’s example excludes the last calendar year the couple was together from earnings-record division. For separation routes, the checker displays the year before living apart began as the last potentially included year. A legal divorce date does not establish the last year together, so the divorce route asks you to check your records instead of inferring a year. It does not decide the first included year or calculate the earnings that will actually be divided. Changing this field does not edit either person’s CPP record.
Year-specific exclusions include low combined pensionable earnings, ages outside the supported contribution period, disability and a CPP/QPP retirement pension during the period. Agreements and CPP/QPP interaction also need review. Older divorces have different rules and are explicitly outside this date model. Use the official process with actual records; keep identifiers out of this worksheet. Confirm an exact filing deadline with Service Canada if date-of-receipt or an exceptional period is material.
Official sources and scope
Checked 6 October 2026. These are bounded Canadian worksheets, not a completed return or an agency decision.