Blog Post

Government Benefits Following a Death

  • By McKenzie Funeral Services
  • •
  • 15 Aug, 2019
  • •

CPP Benefit, Survivors Pension, and Child Benefits

Hello and welcome to the McKenzie Journal and our first ever blog post. Our topic today is on the many government benefits many Canadians are entitled to following a death.

Most Canadians are unaware of these benefits and how to apply for them. Luckily, our funeral directors are quite knowledgeable with these benefits and help families on a daily basis apply for these entitlements.

Here's a brief overview of each benefit through Service Canada:

Canadian Pension Death Benefit:

  • This is a one time, lump sum payment to the estate on behalf of the deceased.
  • The benefit is to a maximum of $2500.
  • A good rule of thumb for calculating this benefit is multiplying your monthly CPP payment by six. This amount cannot exceed $2500.
  • To be eligible for this benefit, the deceased must have contributed to the Canada Pension Plan for 10 calendar years or one third of the calendar years in their contributory period for the base CPP, but no less than 3 calendar years.
For more information, please see this Service Canada Link:  Death Benefit Link


CPP Survivors Benefit:

  • This is a monthly pension for the surviving spouse or common law partner of the deceased.
  • If the deceased was over the age of 65, the surviving spouse would receive 60% of the deceased's monthly CPP contribution. It would be added on to the surviving spouse's monthly CPP.
  • This benefit is payable to the surviving spouse for the remainder of their life.
For more information, please see this Service Canada Link: Survivor Pension Link


CPP Child's Benefit:

  • This is a monthly benefit to any children under the age of 18, or between the ages of 18-25 and attending post secondary university who's parent(s) is now deceased but was a CPP contributor.
  • The amount is a flat monthly payment of $250.27 as of 2019.
For more information, please see this Service Canada Link: Child Benefit Link


Allowance for Survivor:

  • This is a benefit available to individuals between the ages of 60-64 who have a low income and who's spouse or common law partner has died.
  • It is a monthly pension paid to the individuals 65th birthday.
  • Purpose of this benefit is to help those between the ages of 60-64 who are not yet receiving CPP or OAS and have recently lost a spouse.

For more information, please this Service Canada Link:  Survivor Allowance Link


Each of these benefits have criteria for eligibility. We ask that you either give our funeral home a call if you need further explanation or to click the links provided on this blog for more information.

Online Memorials - A Digital Legacy

By McKenzie Funeral Services • 09 Oct, 2019
Welcome to another edition of the McKenzie Journal. Today we're going to be talking about the increasing benefits and use of Online Memorials. An online memorial is a webpage to honour a deceased and allow for family and friends to interact with one another to tell stories, share photos, and come together to remember their loved one.

At our funeral home in West Vancouver, we're seeing an increasing demand and request from families for their use. Many families will want to have an online memorial page for the following reasons:

Creates a Lasting Legacy for an Individual: Online Memorials create a lasting memory of your loved one and can stay online for as long as you wish. Many times growing up as a child we may have wondered what our grandparents or great grandparents would have looked like or what they loved. In our grandparents generation they didn't have the luxury of creating online memorials. We, as children or adults, would have to find old photo books or heirlooms to have some connection. Now though, if we look ahead into the future towards 20-60 years from now, our children and grand children can simply go online to find a memorial page to see their relatives photos, obituary, and their celebration of life information with the click of a button. My establishing an online memorial page, we're creating a digital legacy for our families.

Provides Service Details: Many of our families that we service love the fact that the celebration of life details can be placed on the online page as it is an easy way for family and friends to see the location and time of the event. Likewise, on our online pages through mckenziefuneralservices.com, our pages allow for guests to receive directions to their phone to the event location if they're coming from out of town.

Allows Family & Friends to Share Memories, Videos and Photos: Our online pages make it extremely easy for friends and family to upload priceless memories and stories of the deceased. Those who knew the deceased can upload photos or videos directly from their smartphone of desktop directly to the page. Likewise, online memorials allow for friends and family of the deceased to write public and private messages of condolences directly to the family. In turn, many of these message boards can be a place where heartfelt stories of the deceased can be shared as well.

Our 3rd Annual Evergreen Christmas Remembrance Ceremony

By Mark McKenzie • 14 Nov, 2018

The holidays are a time of joyful celebration for many, but for those who have recently lost a loved one, the time of year can feel extremely lonely and difficult. To help families who have lost people in their lives over the last year, McKenzie Funeral Services will be holding its 3rd Annual Evergreen Christmas Remembrance Ceremony in partnership with the Paul Sugar Palliative Support Foundation.

Here, families will have the chance to gather and receive support from friends and family, while enjoying peaceful music, and refreshments. The Evergreen Christmas Remembrance Ceremony is open to anyone in the community that’s lost a loved one,” says Mark McKenzie, Community Relations Director at McKenzie Funeral Services, whose family has been in the funeral services business since 1946. “At the ceremony, my father George McKenzie along with respected community physician, Dr. Paul Sugar, will share words of hope and comfort to those attending,” he continues.

Volunteers from the Dr. Paul Sugar Foundation will also be present to help attendees with bereavement support.

“It’s really a special event for those families in our community. It lets them know that they’re not alone in their grief”.

The 2018 event will take place at 6:00 p.m. on November 27 at the Capilano Golf and Country Club: Stanley Thompson Room. All who wish to remember a loved one are welcome. To RSVP, contact McKenzie Funeral Services at 604-926-5121 or mark@mckenziefuneralservices.com .


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