March 14, 2018 - Ottawa, ON
Thank you to all the Veterans and the families who joined us for our Facebook Live “Q&A with VAC on New Benefits”
March 14, 2018 – I want to thank all of the Veterans across Canada and their families who joined us during our Facebook Live “Q&A with VAC” on the new benefits. Over 300 tuned in live, but the video now has over 10K views. I thank you for your comments, questions, suggestions and shares. In all, we answered over 45 questions during the hour in addition to many online, but there are still many more to be answered. My team will be working with VAC to answer your remaining questions on Facebook that we couldn’t get to yesterday.
If you weren’t able to tune in live, the video is available here: https://www.facebook.com/VeteransOmbudsman/videos/10160078677655035/
The impact of these new benefits on Veterans and their families is complex, and I hope that some of your questions were answered by our guests from VAC: Faith McIntyre, Director General, Policy and Research Division, Paul Thompson, Director General, Service Delivery Modernization, and the VAC staff answering questions online. I thank them for taking the time to participate in our Facebook Live. While some clarification was provided, I know there is still much apprehension around the implementation of these benefits, and further information is needed. I heard significant concern around how these new programs and their eligibility are being communicated to Veterans. I truly believe that an online calculator is needed to help Veterans understand what these changes mean for them.
More specifically, I heard:
• Veterans and their families are very concerned about the delays in disability benefit decisions and the impact that new benefits will have on potentially exacerbating an already too large backlog. VAC needs to address the turnaround problem as soon as possible. It is unacceptable.
• It’s still not clear how the new Pain and Suffering benefits will be calculated for those who have already received a Disability Award. An online calculator would help address this.
• We had many questions about the future of the Career Impact Allowance (CIA) and CIA Supplement. We learned yesterday that Veterans currently receiving the CIA will get the Additional Pain and Suffering benefit (APSC) at the same grade as their CIA and that Veterans in receipt of the supplement will have their amount protected for life.
• Veterans are unclear about the eligibility requirements for the new benefits being implemented on April 1, 2018, including the Education and Training Benefit, Career Transition Services and the Caregiver Recognition Benefit. Veterans need this information in a timely manner in order to be proactive and informed about what they’re eligible for.
• Lastly, Veterans are concerned about why gender is a factor in the calculation of the retrospective monthly amount for the PSC benefit. I have raised this concern and will continue to do so.
I will continue to work with you to ensure that the implementation of Pension for Life is fair and transparent, and that Veterans and their family’s needs come first.
Guy Parent
Veterans Ombudsman