Benefit Payment Dates (2026)

Why OAS and CPP land at the end of the month

Service Canada pays pensions in the last few banking days of the month, which is why the dates drift between the 22nd and the 29th rather than sitting on a fixed number. December is the exception you can plan around: it's pulled forward to the 22nd so payments clear before the holidays.

Two practical notes. First, GIS is not a separate cheque — it's combined with your OAS pension into one deposit, so a single amount arriving on an OAS date is usually both. Second, if you get OAS and CPP together, expect two deposits on the same day; banks list them separately, which catches people out when they're checking whether a payment arrived.

The government's own guidance is to allow 5 to 10 business days after the payment date before contacting the program about a missing payment — direct deposit is normally same-day, but a posted cheque takes longer.

The July recalculation — why your amount changes

Every July the CRA recalculates the CCB using the adjusted family net income from the previous year's tax return. Payments from July 2026 through June 2027 are based on your 2025 income. Nothing about your children has to change for the amount to move — a raise in 2025 shows up as a smaller cheque starting July 2026, and a lower-income year works the other way.

This is also why filing matters more than usual: both you and your spouse or common-law partner have to file a return every year, even with no income, or the payments stop until you do. The same July reset applies to the GST/HST credit and the Ontario Trillium Benefit. To see what the new amount should be, run your numbers through the CCB calculator.

GST/HST credit, Trillium and the "Canada PRO" mystery deposit

The GST/HST credit is quarterly rather than monthly, and in 2026 it was renamed. The CRA is explicit about it: the Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit (CGEB) replaced the GST/HST credit in July 2026, and under the new name "the eligibility, payment calculation, and structure is the same as it was for the GST/HST credit." That's why the January and April 2026 payments are listed under the old name and July and October under the new one. If you were expecting "GST" on your July statement and saw something else, that's the reason — it's the same quarterly payment stream. One substantive change did come with it: a 25% increase to the benefit amount starting July 2026, which the CRA says stays in place for five years (2026 to 2031).

In Ontario, the Ontario Trillium Benefit bundles three credits — the Ontario energy and property tax credit, the Northern Ontario energy credit and the Ontario sales tax credit — into one monthly payment around the 10th. Many banks display the deposit as "Canada PRO" rather than naming the credit, which is why it so often turns up as a mystery deposit — that label is a bank-side convention, not CRA wording, so don't expect to find it on a government page. Two rules shift the schedule: when the 10th falls on a weekend or statutory holiday the OTB is issued on the last working day before the 10th (which is why January, May and October sit early in 2026), and if your 2026 annual entitlement is $500 or less it's paid as one lump sum in the first payment month instead of monthly. You can also elect on your return to take the whole year in a single payment — in that case, if your entitlement is over $500, it's issued at the end of the benefit year on June 10, 2027.