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Canadian Dental Care Plan – Did You Receive an Audit Letter?

By February 27, 2026No Comments
The Canadian Dental Care Plan (CDCP) came into effect in the spring of 2024, to assist lower-income Canadians with the costs of dental care.  
 
The rules for CDCP eligibility are not based solely on income, which would be the most equitable situation.  Instead, in addition to having an adjusted family net income of less than $90,000 in the preceding year, you also must not have access to a group dental plan, e.g. through an employer or your pension plan.  This is true even if you aren’t actually enrolled in the proffered dental plan.  
 
The Teachers’ Pension Plan (TPP) offers group dental coverage through GreenShield Canada.  This makes the vast majority of TPP members ineligible for the CDCP.  However, if you dropped or declined coverage before December 11, 2023, you can join the CDCP if you meet the income test.  The CDCP announced this date in early 2024, when it was too late for lower-income pensioners to drop out of the dental plan in order to have the support of the CDCP.  
 
Teachers’ Pension Plan members who signed up for the CDCP have received letters and an Eligibility Review Form from CDCP to verify their eligibility for coverage.  
This is happening now because the Teachers’ Pension Plan was required to code Box 15 of your T4A slip for 2024 to indicate that the TPP offers a group dental plan.  The TPP coded everyone’s T4A with “Code 3” which shows the TPP offers a plan.  They did not use “Code 1” for plan members who dropped out or declined the dental plan by the target date, which is the code for people who do not have access to a dental plan.  So the CDCP is now checking up on all TPP members who enrolled in the Canadian Dental Care Plan.
 
Unless you declined or dropped out of the TPP GreenShield Dental Plan before December 11, 2023, you were not eligible for the CDCP.  If you registered for the CDCP even though you didn’t decline or drop the TPP dental plan before the target date, the CDCP will cancel your CDCP enrolment and will require that you pay back any benefits you received for the 2025-26 benefit year. 
 
If you did meet that deadline, CDCP requires verification from the Teachers’ Pension Plan to show that you declined coverage in time.
The Teacher’s Pension Plan will help you with verification by providing a letter that you can send in to Health Canada.  The CDCP will accept the letter in place of their Eligibility Review Form.  We encourage you to visit https://tpp.pensionsbc.ca/canadian-dental-care-plan for guidance on requesting a CDCP letter.
You can request the eligibility letter in two ways:
  1. go into your My Account on the TPP website at tpp.pensionsbc.ca then go to Message Centre.  Request a letter that confirms you waived or cancelled dental coverage with the TPP before December 11, 2023.
  2. or, send an email to retired@pensionsbc.ca with the same request.  Include 3 of: your name, address, phone number, date of birth, or person  identification number.  
The TPP will respond within 2 weeks.  Print the TPP letter and mail it to:
Oral Health Branch,
Health Canada,
Government of Canada,
P.O. Box 10301, 
Matane, Quebec. G4W 0A9
You have to re-qualify for the CDCP each year based on your previous year’s family income.  
To see if you meet the income test for enrolment, here’s how to calculate the Adjusted Family Net Income for you and your spouse or common-law partner:
 
Your family net income (line 23600 of your tax return plus line 23600 of your spouse’s tax return) – any universal child care benefit (UCCB) and registered disability savings plan (RDSP) income received (line 11700 and line 12500 of your or your spouse’s tax return) + any UCCB and RDSP amounts repaid (line 21300 and line 23200 of your or your spouse’s tax return = Adjusted Family Net Income
Family Net Income - (UCCB & RDSP Income) + (UCCB & RDSP repaid) = Adjusted Family Net Income