The Fed Giveth, The Fed Taketh Away!

OK, I understand that VAC is treating you like crap, which is wrong, but the rest just doesn't make sense. If VAC deposited a whack of money in my account that I wasn't expecting, I would have been on the phone asking what that money was for. So if you did in fact receive ELB retro back to 2006, and you knew that you had a chance of getting reinstated by SISIP, then why didn't you put that money aside? Put it into a separate savings account, so you didn't have ready access to it, then it would have been there when VAC came a knockin. As far as taxes is concerned, it will work out in the end once you file your taxes. CRA will look at what you made, what was paid back and the amount of taxes paid in respect to each year, and if you paid too much, then you will get that money back.

You are correct bigrex, I have only been receiving ELB for approximately one year, however that first payment was a big one. Since my release in '03, I have struggled everyday, right up until last September when , for the first time since '05, I called VAC and asked to get on the rehab program(I was on it previously but they dropped me when I failed to respond to any correspondence). That was when I learned of the class action and that I was a member. That was also when I started receiving ELB, along with a worksheet calculating ELB adjustment back to 2006, of which I received as a chunk of cash in my bank account. To some individuals, that may sound like I got ELB retro back to '06. Sure sounds like it to me. How come I got it and there are tons of people on this site waiting for word of ELB retro?

Getting back to the class action. After digging into my storage bin for any letters or mail from SISIP, I discovered that I fell into the group that was "asked to provide Physician Statement and Financial records, but failed to comply". I immediately got 10 years of financial records and statement from my physician and sent copies to SISIP as well as Dan Wallace. It was exactly 18 days later that I received a reply from Manual Life informing me that I was approved for benefits going forward and was re-instated. This occurred in late July of this year. I immediately informed VAC of this and ELB was terminated effective 30 July 2013.

I was aware that I would have to pay back ELB, however I didn't expect to be treated like a criminal. Like I defrauded the government out of some money. And to just demand the full amount back without considering the tax implications. I have paid tax on that money at the source, and obviously paying the ELB back will have to come from my retro, meaning that the ELB repayment funds have had 30% federal tax withheld and lawyer's fee's deducted reducing my retro by an additional 10,000.00. And of course they want the full amount back, so I'm paying tax on that money AGAIN!!!! Forgive me if it sounds like I'm whining however, this time last year I would have blown a dead bear for $10,000.00,and to think those f*****g gibbles in Charlottetown are going to take that from me makes me feel like I'm going to go postal. Every time VAC is involved, somehow, for some reason, there doesn't appear to be any continuity. Everyone is treated differently, no universality. It's a clear case of "the squeaky wheel get's the grease". VAC is banking on those veterans who don't say anything, certainly those suffering mental illness and don't possess the insight or even the will to fight the GOC.

I'm a little confused here. AFIK, the only class members to have been reinstated thus far are those who had been zero summed by SISIP (because the settlement only requested zero sum client files be reviewed for reinstatement, and non zero sum clients could go through the adjudicator for reinstatement). So until late last year, you should have been zero summed by ELB as well, since they made the same deductions. Even if you hadn't been zero summed by SISIP and collected a reduced benefit beyond the 24 month period, you would have been zeroed out by ELB because they would deduct your SISIP amount from any benefit. I'm just trying to figure how you have this huge amount of ELB to pay back. Even if you started collecting ELB last October, once the clawback ceased, the moment you were reinstated by SISIP and started getting monthly deposits, the ELB should have stopped, and even if you were only just recently reinstated on SISIP, there should be only one years worth of ELB to pay back out of several years of SISIP retro. I agree it sucks having to pay back money from your retro, but it was far from unexpected.

I am speechless and that is a hard thing to do my brother

TTT one thing you might consider is this...pay them the full amount. The full amount will be deducted from your gross income for the year which means your tax hit is less then you have calculated.

Stay focussed TTT, if worse comes to worse, contact the ombudsman's office to see if they can mediate between you and VAC. You had to expect that they would want the ELB back right? Are you entitled to anything in regard to any ELB retro?

Check out the legal fees again...they're only supposed to be 8.027% combined, not 9 or 9.5%. Best case scenario is work something out with VAC to pay back something, $650 might be a bit steep...tell them to have their bean counters rework it so it doesn't impact you that greatly.

You really can't fight the GoC...just manipulate their rules to work in your favor. VAC can't put you into a hardship situation. Tax wise, you know that you'll be getting some sort of refund from paying taxes multiple times...so just hang in there on that one.

I checked into it. I will be paying 44% tax. 30% to the fed and 14% provincial(Ontario) MC scooped 9%, so that leaves me with 47% of my retro!? Well not really, cuz I have to pay back ELB paid to me since 2006. Kind of figured that was going to suck, but the letter from Charlottetown has left a sour taste in my mouth that just won't go away. They are behaving like I have illegally defrauded them out of ELB. I legally received that money but due to the class action, I am now in an "Overpayment" situation and they want it all back just as soon as they can get their mitt's on it. I paid tax on that ELB at source and because I was re-instated and receiving retro, they want me to just write them a check and pay them back. So now I paid tax at the source, the ELB money that I'm paying back from my retro has had 30% tax withheld and 9.5% lawyer's fee's deducted, robbing me of another 10000.00. And of course, they want the full amount back which literally means I've been taxed 3 times on that $%#%#$&^$ ELB benefit. I should mention that VAC recommended that I authorize a PAD to allow them to deduct 620.00 a month from my "disability award" unless I can prove that this would cause financial difficulty for me. Basically, if I don't write them a check for the whole amount, they will reduce my disability benefit to recover the overpayment. Didn't we just go through all this? And after all is said and done, and the federal and provincial government's take their cut of my retro, MC takes theirs, a chunk for child support and some outstanding debt, I now have my income reduced by 620.00 a month.

The f*****g assholes at VAC just love to stick it to ya!! VAC has known for sometime now that there would be implications regarding the supreme courts ruling, however they have made no attempt whatsoever to address this on a universal basis, and once again it is up to me to explain to those DUMB F**KS that the Supreme Court has ruled that they cannot use my "disability award" to determine income. Is this the department that oversee's the health and welfare of our nations veteran's?? It sounds more like the Unemployment Insurance office. I am so f*****g sick of the bullshit.