In this article, I explain how the CPP administration calculates the monthly CPP disability benefit amount.

This article is part of our Ultimate Guide to CPP Disability.

Overview of CPP Disability Payment Amounts

If you’re approved for CPP disability, then you will get a monthly disability payment which is normally direct deposited into your bank account. Everyone’s payment amount is different. Your CPP disability payment amount is based on your CPP contribution history plus a fixed payment.

For 2019, the average CPP disability payment is $1001.15 per month, and the maximum CPP disability benefit anyone can get is $1,362.30. These amounts increase each year for inflation.

In addition to your CPP disability payment amount, you also get an additional payment for each dependent child. In 2019, the amount per dependent child is $250.27. The child CPP benefit amounts increase slightly each year as well. 

How Is the CPP Disability Amount Calculated? 

Your monthly CPP disability payment amount is mostly based on your past contributions to the Canada Pension Plan and the number of years you contributed. As a general rule, the more you contributed to the CPP over the greater number of years,  the more you will get for both a CPP disability payment and a retirement pension.

The actual formula is as follows:

Monthly CPP Disability Payment =
Fixed Pay amount + Contribution Pay amount

As you can see, the CPP disability payment is made up of two parts:

1. the Fixed Pay amount and
2. the Contribution Pay amount 

The Fixed Pay amount is the easy part. It is a specific amount that is the same for everyone. It it set each year by the CPP administration. For example, in 2018 the Fixed Pay amount was $485.20.

The Contribution Pay amount is your calculated monthly CPP retirement pension multiplied by 0.75 — this is the hard part.

If you are approved for CPP disability, the CPP administration will first calculate your CPP retirement pension amount. They look at it from the time you stopped working due to disability.

For example, let’s assume that as of the time you stopped work due to disability, your CPP retirement amount is calculated to be $800 per month. The CPP Administration will multiply that $800 per month by 0.75 to get $600 per month. This is what I call the contribution amount because it is based on your actual contributions to the CPP.

Finally, the CPP Administration will take your contribution amount ($600) and then add the fixed pay amount ($485.20), to arrive at a final figure of $1,085.20 – this would be your disability payment.

The hardest part of this whole exercise is calculating your CPP retirement amount. You need to know your retirement amount so you can multiply it by 0.75 to get your Contribution Amount for CPP disability.  To calculate your CPP retirement amount, you need to know the following:

• your complete history of contributions to the CPP;
• your number of contribution months (NCM);
• your Total Adjusted Pensionable Earning;
• your general dropout period;
• your dropout period for raising children (if applicable)
• your Average Monthly Pensionable Earnings (AMPE)

Once you know all of this information, it is possible to calculate your CPP disability payment amount down to the penny. For a complete explanation of the CPP retirement formula, see Doug Runchey’s article How to Calculate your CPP Retirement Pension.  Doug Runchey deserves a big thank you from all of us for making this information publicly available.

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