Fill Out Form ISP-1640 Online
Request for a Child Rearing Provision
Employment and Social Development Canada
Asks that low-earning years spent raising children under seven be excluded when calculating CPP benefits.
Reviewed July 2026
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Form ISP-1640 is the Request for a Child Rearing Provision under the Canada Pension Plan. The provision asks Service Canada to exclude the years when you stopped working or earned less because you were the primary caregiver of children under age 7. Removing those low-earning years from the calculation can increase the amount of your CPP retirement, disability, or survivor benefits.
You can complete ISP-1640 in the Universal PDF editor. Fill in your details and each child's information on screen, then download the finished PDF to print, sign, and submit alongside your CPP application or on its own.
What is Form ISP-1640 used for
CPP benefits are calculated from your record of pensionable earnings. Years spent at home raising young children usually show little or no earnings, which would drag the average down. The child-rearing provision tells Service Canada to leave those years out of the calculation, or to substitute earnings from before the child-rearing period, whichever helps you more.
The provision can affect eligibility as well as amounts. For CPP disability benefits, for example, excluding child-rearing years can help you meet the recent-contribution requirement. The effect on any individual benefit depends on your record, and current benefit figures are on canada.ca.
Who applies with Form ISP-1640
You can request the provision if you stopped working or reduced your earnings to be the primary caregiver of a child under 7, and you were eligible for Family Allowances or the Canada Child Benefit, or its predecessor the Canada Child Tax Benefit, for that child. The parent who received the child benefit payments, or the primary caregiver, is normally the one who claims the provision.
The current ISP-1000 retirement application includes a child-rearing section, so this standalone form is mainly for people who already applied for a benefit without claiming the provision, or who are applying for a benefit whose form does not capture it.
How to fill out Form ISP-1640
The form is short and centres on your children's details:
- Enter your Social Insurance Number, name, and contact information.
- List each child, with their name, date of birth, and Social Insurance Number if known.
- Indicate the periods when you were the primary caregiver and your earnings stopped or dropped.
- Confirm your eligibility for Family Allowances or the child benefit for each child during those years.
- Attach proof of the children's dates of birth if Service Canada does not already have it.
- Sign and date the declaration.
How to submit it
Send the signed form to the Service Canada office for your province or territory, either in the same envelope as your CPP benefit application or separately if you have already applied. Addresses are listed on canada.ca, and you can also drop the form off at a Service Canada office. If you apply for CPP online through My Service Canada Account, the online application lets you claim the provision as part of the process.
Frequently asked questions
No. It is not a payment on its own. It changes how your CPP benefit is calculated by excluding low-earning child-rearing years, which can raise the benefit you receive.
The primary caregiver during the years in question, normally the parent who was eligible for Family Allowances or received the child benefit for the child. Only one person can use the provision for a given period.
No. You can submit ISP-1640 after your benefit starts and ask Service Canada to review your calculation with the provision applied. Contact Service Canada about how any adjustment applies to your file.
The online retirement application in My Service Canada Account includes child-rearing questions, and the current paper ISP-1000 has a section for it too. Use ISP-1640 when the provision was not claimed in your original application.
Service Canada may ask for the children's birth certificates and confirmation of child benefit eligibility for the relevant years. Include what the form requests and keep copies of anything you send.
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