CPP and disability: When should you retire and start your pension?

For someone collecting disability income, deciding when to retire and start CPP carries an extra wrinkle that doesn't apply to most people. The worry is that turning on a pension might switch off the disability payments, and this piece sorts out how those pieces actually interact. The key distinction it draws is between earned income and passive income: because pension and retirement withdrawals are passive, they don't signal a return to work, so CPP disability benefits generally carry on. From there it becomes a more familiar retirement question, weighing income now against income later, watching for changes to group health benefits when you leave a job, and thinking about how spending tends to ease over time. It's most relevant to anyone on disability who's tempted to retire early but doesn't want to lose ground in the process.