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VeteranVoice.info
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for you, all veterans, regardless of whether you belong to a
veteran organization or not. VVi is a distribution centre, a
conduit for making sure that the information you need as a veteran
is there for you in a timely fashion. Our aim is to provide a
forum for all Canadian
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information pertaining to veteran rights.
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VAC Pension for Life
Announced this morning of 20 Dec 2017, VAC's Pension for Life
lacks a great many details. If anything, the ambiguous announcement
has left many veterans understandably confused and frustrated not
knowing what it all means. A sampling of few veteran comments
illustrate the sad, but expected outcome of this announcement.
WS: A big part of the
problem is that politicians and bureaucrats craft their
announcements to make it seem like they are really solving
the problem. You need to drill down into the details, which
most people won't spend the time to do, to understand that
the politicians/bureaucrats are falling short of doing
anything meaningful.
KG: The way I read it that it
won’t be included until the fiscal year 19/20. They said
they have to find the money. Delay delay.\
DKK: So my question is what
happens to us who took the lump sum or had it forced on us?
CC: So the cheques roll out just in time for the
election hoping everyone ignores the dragged their heels for
4 years and still never achieved what the(y) promised for
90% of veterans; an actual return to lifelong pensions at
pre-2006 levels.
BG: The new income replacement (ELB)
supposedly will carry on for life if at 65 it's determined
you are still disabled. Looks like another hoop to jump
through and if VA holds true to form many will again be
denied and forced to appeal and appeal.
SC: (T)he
president of Military Minds speaking to the pension
announcement and the Mental Health concerns. He also pointed
out that the pension inception date is going to be on April
Fools Day 2019. Should we trust this?....
JS: So we
had a shitty pile of crap VAC pension model and now they
have taken that same pile of crap and just remolded it.
Regardless of how they present it, it's still shit!! |
Nevertheless, many veteran advocates, including VVi are
onto to this announcement, monitoring all and any mentions of the
Pension for Life and exactly what the fine print will be.
Below, find links that refer to the announcement itself, the newly
posted policy on VAC's website, the VAG Policy and pertinent web
sites:
The
announcement url:
http://www.cpac.ca/en/direct/cpac2/146781/government-releases-details-lifetime-pensions-veterans/
VAC Pension for Life Letter pdf:
English:
https://veteranvoice.info/archive/Periodicals/Periodical_17dec_VACltr.pdf
French:
https://veteranvoice.info/archive/Periodicals/Periodical_17dec_VACltr_FR.pdf
VAC Internet Pension for Life url:
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/services/pension-for-life
Veteran Advisory Group - Policy url:
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/about-us/stakeholder-engagement/policy
Veteran Guerrilla Radio:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/853095038155250/
Equitas Society:
http://www.equitassociety.ca/
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Initial News Articles of VAC Pension for Life Announcement 20 Dec
2017
 Liberals
confirm return of lifelong pensions for veterans
By
Beatrice Britneff.
Published on Dec 20, 2017 10:13am
VVi
20 Dec 2017 pd
Minister of Veterans Affairs Seamus O'Regan holds a press conference
on the government's pension-for-life plan Wednesday, December 19,
2017, in Ottawa. iPolitics/Matthew Usherwood
A long-awaited
compensation plan announced by the federal Department of Veterans
Affairs today is reintroducing lifelong pensions as an option for
former soldiers who retired from the Canadian Forces after 2006
because of illness or injury – but, despite hopes, most veterans
will not see any new money under the plan, unless they are severely
disabled.
The lifetime pension option for injured veterans
was stripped away in 2006 when the House of Commons unanimously
passed the contentious New Veterans Charter, which replaced monthly
pensions for life with a lump-sum payment.
Even though the
charter introduced a suite of programs to help veterans transition
to life after military service, veterans have claimed that in the
long term, it provides them with less financial assistance than the
old Pension Act. Critics have spent years calling on Ottawa to
re-instate monthly pensions and return veterans’ compensation to
pre-2006 levels.
While government officials provided a few
hypothetical scenarios in which veterans deemed to be 100 per cent
disabled might get more money over their lifetime under the new plan
than under the Pension Act, Veterans Affairs Minister Seamus O’Regan
said he cannot guarantee that the average veteran will see the same
effect.
O’Regan said the government wanted to target retired
soldiers who are “catastrophically injured” and “most in need” with
its redesign – titled the “Pension for Life” plan – and acknowledged
this won’t sit well with all veterans.
“We will not make
everyone happy with this,” O’Regan said at a press conference
Wednesday morning in Ottawa. “This isn’t some mission accomplished
moment. This, in many ways, is just the beginning.”
The
changes announced today won’t come into effect until April 1, 2019 –
nearly four years after the Liberals first pledged to re-establish
lifelong pensions on the campaign trail in 2015. The government said
it has to allow time for legislation to pass and for the Department
of Veterans Affairs to prepare for the overhaul.
When asked
why the government took two years to announce changes that had been
promised, O’Regan said the department “wanted to make the most” of
the new program.
The “Pension for Life” plan is consolidating
six existing income support benefits into one, in an effort to
simplify what many veterans see as terribly confusing system. Sean
Bruyea, a former Canadian Air Force officer turned veterans
advocate, said the application process for benefits may become
simpler as a result, but he believes the criteria for eligibility
aren’t any easier to understand.
“This is going to create a
nightmare of anxiety for veterans for their family members,” Bruyea
told reporters. “This is an extremely complex system.”
The
new benefit scheme replaces the lump-sum disability award with “Pain
and Suffering Compensation.” Under the renamed, non-taxable award,
eligible veterans can receive a maximum of $1,150 per month, for
life – which remains unchanged from the New Veterans Charter
disability award – or opt for a lump-sum payment.
Veterans
Affairs is also introducing a three-tier “Additional Pain and
Suffering Compensation” for veterans with “severe and permanent
impairment” related to their military service. Depending on the
severity of their injury, eligible veterans might receive an
additional, monthly payment of $500, $1,000 or $1,500 – which is
also tax-free.
Under the pre-2006 system, disabled veterans
could receive a tax-free, monthly pension of up to $2,733 for the
rest of their lives. The maximum a critically injured veteran could
receive from both pain and suffering awards under the new plan would
be $2,650 per month.
Senior department officials told
reporters in a technical briefing they estimate 12 per cent of
Veterans Affairs’ clients are injured seriously enough to make them
eligible for the maximum amount.
Veterans advocates on
Wednesday said they were disappointed to see that only a small group
of veterans will see an increase in their compensation under the
“Pension for Life” plan, arguing it creates a “class system” of
veterans.
“I think it’s bittersweet frankly,” Michael Blais,
president of Canadian Veterans Advocacy, told iPolitics. “It’s like
they’re dividing our community [between] those who have and those
who have not, instead of acknowledging sacrifice equally.”
Bruyea expressed a similar opinion, saying he believe the new plan
will provoke “a lot of dissent (and) a lot of discord in the
veterans community.”
“I think overall this is not good for
their well-being,” he said.
The new plan also consolidates
four existing benefits into a taxable “Income Replacement Benefit,”
designed for veterans who “have barriers to re-establishment due to
physical or mental health problem(s) resulting primarily from
service” and are participating in Veterans Affairs’ Rehabilitation
Program.
The government said that benefit will amount to 90
per cent of a veteran’s salary at the time they were released from
the military. A veteran in receipt of income replacement can earn up
to $20,000 from employment before any deductions are made.
The government says the initiatives announced under the “Pension for
Life” plan represent an additional investment of $3.6 billion.
The government said veterans already receiving disability
benefits under the New Veterans Charter will have their awards
automatically adjusted – they will not need to reapply under the new
system – and that the “Pension for Life” plan will also apply
retroactively.
“If you have received a lump-sum payment under
the New Veterans Charter, we will calculate how much you would’ve
received at the point you received that lump-sum payment,” O’Regan
said. “We will apply that all the way back. That difference will be
applied monthly for the rest of your life.”
O’Regan also
confirmed no injured veteran currently receiving benefits under the
New Veterans Charter will see a decrease in their net compensation
as a result of the updated plan.
Both the Conservatives and
the NDP criticized the Liberals for making veterans wait an
additional 14 months for “Pension for Life” to be implemented.
Earlier the day, O’Regan admitted that he wishes veterans could see
change “today.”
“I don’t think it’s fair to ask veterans to
wait any more time, to be honest with you,” the minister said. “All
I can do is look them in the eye and say we’re doing our best.”
“I want them to have it today.”
See
more...https://ipolitics.ca/2017/12/20/liberals-confirm-return-lifelong-pensions-veterans/
More News Articles
CBC News
See...http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/veterans-pension-disability-1.4457755
CBC News See more...http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/there-s-chaos-in-the-veteran-community-today-1.4459405
CTV News
See...https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/politics/liberals-pension-plan-for-disabled-veterans-won-t-take-effect-until-2019-1.3729370
CTV Power Play See...https://www.ctvnews.ca/mobile/politics/liberals-pension-plan-for-disabled-veterans-won-t-take-effect-until-2019-1.3729370
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