Enrolment made easy

Earn secure income in retirement by building your pension while you work

 

MEMBER ENROLMENT

Grow with DBplus

Note: If you work full time and your employer participates in the CAAT Plan, you are automatically enrolled in the Plan. This page does not apply to you. For any questions on your Plan enrolment, contact your HR administrator.

If you work part-time or on contract you have the choice to enrol in the Plan anytime during your employment via DBplus (unless enrolment becomes mandatory in your jurisdiction of employment after a certain threshold). Once a DBplus member, contributions are deducted every pay that go towards your pension. Your employer also contributes to the Plan, increasing your overall pension. Each employer has its own contribution rate expressed as a percentage of your salary. Visit the Your contributions page to see your employer’s rates.

Once you're enrolled in the Plan, you can't opt out. The choice to enrol is yours to make, but CAAT is here to answer any questions you might have.

Your benefits as a DBplus member

Choosing to enrol in DBplus means choosing a secure and predictable retirement income. A pay cheque deposited every month in your account helps you enjoy retirement free of financial stress or burden. But DBplus is more than just that – it gives you control of things like deciding when you want to retire, and portability of the account, peace of mind with survivor benefits, and expert pension guidance with inflation protection.

The value of a CAAT Pension

Your ideal retirement could be within reach.

Deciding if DBplus is right for you

While a modern defined pension plan offers a myriad of benefits to support your retirement dreams, it is important to consider your options and ensure this is the right choice for you. When you decide to enrol and become a member of the Plan, you are required to contribute on the earnings you receive from all participating employers, and you cannot opt out and stop contributing.

CAAT has a variety of tools to help you in your decision making:

Ready to enrol in DBplus?

Once you’ve made the decision that DBplus is the right choice for you, it’s easy to enrol:

  • If you work in the Ontario College system visit the "Intent to Enrol" page to submit an online application.
  • If you work for an employer that joined DBplus since 2019 or required a voting process, contact your employer directly if you have the option to enrol in DBplus and have decided to do so.

DBplus FAQs

We've answered some of the most-asked questions about enrolling in DBplus, below. If your question isn't answered here, contact our member services team.

If you enrol in the CAAT Plan with one participating employer, you must contact any other participating employer you work for, and ensure that the HR department is aware that you are a member of the Plan. In this way, contributions can be deducted for all employers on a timely basis, which avoids missed contributions requiring catch-up. You will make contributions on every contract, at every participating employer, and earn a pension with each employer. If you start a contract at another employer, and are already enrolled in DBprime through a different employer, you are not eligible to join DBplus.

If you are no longer employed by a participating employer, and you are not yet eligible to retire, you remain a Plan member for 24 months, referred to as Extension of Membership (EOM) period. If you take a job at a new employer that participates in the CAAT Plan during those 24 months, you will resume contributing to the Plan and you will earn additional benefits. To learn about your transfer options on Extension of Membership, visit the page “Leaving your job.”

You will receive your options from the Plan shortly after your Extension of Membership period has passed. Your benefit is locked-in, which means even if you leave the Plan before retirement, it must be used for retirement income, and cannot be taken as a cash payout.

If you work in the Ontario College system, you can visit the DBplus Evaluation Tool. It will give you an estimate of the contributions you would make, and the pension you could earn, starting from the date you enrol in DBplus.

Once you have enrolled in the CAAT Pension Plan, you remain a member. While you are employed by a participating employer you cannot opt out and stop contributing. Learn more on the “Leaving your job” page.

In that case, you will automatically start making contributions and earning a pension in DBprime and start making contributions and earning a pension at the DBprime rates. For every year you contributed to DBplus, you will get a full year of early retirement eligibility service recognized under DBprime. This will help you reach your earliest unreduced retirement date under DBprime sooner.

When you retire, your total pension would be the combined pension earned under both Plan designs.

If you begin working at an employer that only participates in DBplus, and move to full-time employment, you would continue earning a pension in DBplus.

All employees who work part-time or on contract at a participating employer may be able to enrol in DBplus at any time during their employment with a participating employer.

Yes. Visit the Increasing your pension page for details.

You can choose to continue to receive your pension, or you can suspend pension payments, rejoin the Plan and contribute under the DBplus plan design. Members may contribute to the Plan up until November 30 of the year in which they turn 71, after which members must begin receiving their pension payments by law.

Only you can decide if enrolling in the CAAT Pension Plan is right for you. Once you’ve reviewed all the information you should be ready to decide if you want to enrol now and start building your retirement income in DBplus. You may have the option to enrol at any time during your employment, and begin building a pension from that point forward, but the sooner you enrol, the sooner you start building your future pension. Once you enrol, you can’t opt out.