Services in Ontario - Canada Pension Plan (CPP)

During the COVID-19 situation, many community legal clinics are no longer meeting with people in person, but will provide services over the phone. Call ahead for more information.

Legal Aid Ontario funds community legal clinics across Ontario to give free legal services to people with low incomes. Lawyers, community legal workers, and law students can help people with some legal problems, like social assistance, housing, and workers’ rights.

To get help from a clinic:

• your legal issue must be one the clinic deals with
• you must live in the area the clinic serves
• you must have a low income

Most clinics also give brief advice or what’s called “summary advice”, without asking about your financial situation. If your local clinic can’t help you, they may be able to refer you to someone in your community who can.

Legal Aid Ontario funds the Advocacy Centre for the Elderly (ACE). It is a community legal clinic that gives services to seniors with low incomes in the areas of: 

• Health care consent and advance care planning;
• Consumer protection;
• Elder abuse;
• Health care;
• Home care;
• Long-term care homes;
• Pensions and income; and
• Retirement homes.

ACE does not help with wills or powers of attorney, or give legal advice on estate administration, real estate, criminal law, or family law matters.

Service Canada is a central place to access a wide range of government services and benefits, including Employment Insurance, Old Age Security, Canada Pension Plan, Social Insurance Numbers, and passports. There are Service Canada offices across Ontario. 

Service Canada’s Benefits Finder suggests benefits from the Canadian and provincial governments that you may be able to get.

The tribunal makes decisions on appeals about Employment Insurance, Canada Pension Plan, and Old Age Security. The tribunal has a general division, which is the first level of appeal, and an appeal division, which is the second level of appeal. Their website has information about the appeal process and to get the forms you need to make an appeal.