A majority of Canadians figure they will need a part-time job after they retire — but many are also pegging their hopes on an inheritance or a lottery win to fund their golden years, a new survey shows.

Eighty-nine per cent expect the Canada Pension Plan (or Quebec Pension Plan) to cover retirement costs. But nearly one-third, or 31 per cent, plan to “rely heavily” on it — despite an average monthly payout of less than $600 a month, according to a BMO Financial Group survey released Thursday.

“Given the amount that the CPP or QPP pays out, Canadians should not rely on them as a primary source of income to fund their retirement,” warned Chris Buttigieg, BMO’s senior manager, wealth planning strategy.

“Rather, they should consider them to be a supplementary component of their overall retirement income,” he said.

Also, 88 per cent of respondents say they intend personal savings in RRSPs and Tax Free Savings Accounts to fund their retirement outside of CPP, says the study.

Another 59 per cent expect to take on a part-time job after they leave full-time employment while 49 per cent cited the sale of a home or property as a way to fund retirement.

Forty per cent say they are counting on an inheritance and 34 per cent report they are hoping to win the lottery — with 14 per cent saying they are “relying heavily” on that prospect, the report found.

“For those hoping to win the lottery to fund their retirement, the odds of actually winning are approximately 1 in 14 million,” noted Buttigieg.

Even for Canadians who can count on a company pension to help fund their retirement, the landscape is changing, Buttigieg added, referring to the shift from defined benefit plans to the defined contribution model, which doesn’t guarantee the amount received in retirement.

The survey was conducted from November 18 to 22 with an online sample of 1,003 Canadians 18 years of age and over.

Meanwhile, a Statistics Canada report released Tuesday found many older workers who leave long-term jobs do not fully enter retirement. In fact, over one-half of workers ages 55 to 64 who left their jobs between 1994 and 2000 were re-employed within a decade.

The study examined the employment of older workers in Canada over the decade following their exit from a long-term job — one that had lasted 12 years or more. About two-thirds of employed Canadians entered their 50s in these jobs.

Of Canadians who retired at age 55 to 59, 60 per cent were re-employed within the next 10 years. That was also the case for nearly half, or 44 per cent, of those who retired at ages 60 to 64.

Also, men were more likely than women to go back to work in retirement, the report shows.

And older workers who left the workplace due to illness or injury, who had pension coverage through their company, or whose long-term job was in the public sector were less likely than others to return to the workforce.

Most of those who got jobs did so quite soon after their careers ended. For example, among men who were re-employed at ages 60 to 64, 42 per cent were re-employed the same year their full-time job ended, and another 21 per cent were re-employed the following year. The probability of re-employment fell sharply in subsequent years, the study found.

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