Re: Increased Disability Award & Retro

by **Iceman** Wed 25 Jan 2017, 13:30

johnny211 wrote:Why is it so hard to get a yes or no from them. I just sent this on My Vac account message ;

The act from June 22, 2016, states;

In addition, it contains transitional provisions that provide,
among other things, that the Minister of Veterans Affairs must
pay, to a person who received a disability award or a death benefit
under that Act before April 1, 2017, an amount that represents
the increase in the amount of the disability award or the death
benefit, as the case may be. It also makes consequential amendments
to the Children of Deceased Veterans Education Assistance Act,
the Pension Act and the Income Tax Act.

The act states that "The minister must pay Before 1 Apr, 2017"

My one question is now quite simple. And I would like a Yes or
No answer to it, and not a run around the
Circle answer. Will the Dept/Minister follow this act, and pay
the Retro, before 1 Apr 2017?

Thank You

I wifi let you all know the reply.. Johnny Out VVV...

actually, what it says (and i looked through the actual text on the budget amendment )

The Minister must pay to a member or a veteran who received, in whole or in part, a disability award under section 45, 47 or 48 of the Act before April 1, 2017, and who is alive on April 1, 2017, an amount determined in accordance with the formula

and

If a member or a veteran who received, in whole or in part, a disability award under section 45, 47 or 48 of the Act before April 1, 2017 dies before that day, the Minister must pay, in accordance with section 55 of the Act, to a survivor or a person who was, at the time of the member’s or veteran’s death, a dependent child — if that survivor or person is alive on April 1, 2017 — an amount determined in accordance with the formula

basically, they need to pay anyone who received an award prior to april 1, 2017. not pay the amount prior to april

by johnny211 Wed 25 Jan 2017, 12:27

Why is it so hard to get a yes or no from them. I just sent this on My Vac account message ;

The act from June 22, 2016, states;

In addition, it contains transitional provisions that provide,
among other things, that the Minister of Veterans Affairs must
pay, to a person who received a disability award or a death benefit
under that Act before April 1, 2017, an amount that represents
the increase in the amount of the disability award or the death
benefit, as the case may be. It also makes consequential amendments
to the Children of Deceased Veterans Education Assistance Act,
the Pension Act and the Income Tax Act.

The act states that "The minister must pay Before 1 Apr, 2017"

My one question is now quite simple. And I would like a Yes or
No answer to it, and not a run around the
Circle answer. Will the Dept/Minister follow this act, and pay
the Retro, before 1 Apr 2017?

Thank You

I wifi let you all know the reply.. Johnny Out VVV...

by Guest Wed 25 Jan 2017, 12:08

The reality of it all is that our own Minister of Veterans Affairs doesn't even know the formula or even the payout date for the DA retro.

That just proves how involved on our file he really is.

And don't tell me they waited until 2017 for this to occur because of the availability of funds, our Minister has often said that they put 5.6 Billion aside over and above what is allotted for Veterans in the yearly Budgets.

No, VAC does not know what's going on and that is why they took the example down, it is all top secret and only the bureaucrats know, and by the looks of things our Minister has absolutely no interest in knowing himself what the formula, or timing is.

For some unknown reason the info on this is being kept behind closed doors, go figure!

by Vet1234 Wed 25 Jan 2017, 11:17

6608 wrote:Well Trooper, I for one think VAC was correct with their statement and math the way i read things unless i'm missing something. The way i read the legislation is they take the 360k reduce it each year by the CPI till the year in which you received your award then subtract the award amount you were already paid whats left is your top up. If this is the case that means all 25% people regardless of year awarded would get the same amount. my math using 2017 numbers ($314723.89) would be $11,319.02 for 25% awards and $45,276.11 for all 100% persons.

From the legislation

Member or veteran who received disability award

21 (1) The Minister must pay to a member or a veteran who received, in whole or in part, a disability award under section 45, 47 or 48 of the Act before April 1, 2017, and who is alive on April 1, 2017, an amount determined in accordance with the formula
A − B

where
A
is the amount set out in column 3 of Schedule 3 to the Act, as that Schedule read on April 1, 2017, that corresponds to the member’s or veteran’s extent of disability, as set out in column 2, for which the disability award was received, reduced — for every calendar year from 2016 until the year in which the disability award was received — by a percentage calculated in accordance with the method of calculating the percentages by which the amounts set out in Schedule 3 to the Act are periodically adjusted; and
B
is the amount of the disability award that was payable to the member or the veteran under subsection 52(1) of the Act.

http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId=8385247

Cheers

by Armygunner Wed 25 Jan 2017, 09:56

Called VAC this morning and ask when a letter was going to be sent regarding the retro lump sum payment. She stated that it will happen after 1 April 2017; she then went on to tell me about the example 25% will give $11k. I really don't think the VAC personal have a clue what is going on with this payment. I'm sure if I wrote the Minister of Veterans Affairs, I'd only get the beat around bush response back.

by johnny211 Tue 24 Jan 2017, 22:04

vet1234 - thanks, I didn't know that, so that gives them about 9 weeks for letters and payments. will see thou. For some reason they will not even say when it's going to happen. The usual, make us feel like mushrooms..
Johnny Out, VVV...

by Vet1234 Tue 24 Jan 2017, 20:50

Legislation says it needs to be PAID before April 1st, 2017.

by johnny211 Tue 24 Jan 2017, 20:43

Does anyone have a clue, rumour on when these magic letters will be sent, and retro? Maybe on the April budget speech, the MVA will say oh joe civi, look at this neat retro for our Vets, even though it was announced last year? What a Face

VVV...

by Guest Tue 24 Jan 2017, 09:01

trooper yup agreed and I believe they way they are doing it you will end up with roughly the same result .

problem is if you just did it that way the easy way you will be paying in 2017 a retroactive amount say 110,000 due from say 2006 or whatever .

if I'm correct in that COLA must be applied to ALL of your award . that will leave them paying COLA on the 110,000 for all those years .

so they really had to implement some sort of COLA recovery to make there payments as equal as possible through the years .

JMO

propat

by Guest Tue 24 Jan 2017, 08:47

ya iceman bigrex is correct . ya see they only do the reassessment as to what your condition is currently not as it was in 2012 . so they will only pay the current rate and the additional amount you receive already has the COLA added .

as bigrex pointed out they will not add COLA to the initial 10% you already got paid because well they already paid that out so not an issue to them .

kinda like guys that take the buyout over a period of time say a 10,000 award taking 1.000 a year paid . you get 1,000 the first year paid so it does not collect interest or COLA however the 9,000 remaining still does . a thousand paid the second year that will no longer collect COLA but the unpaid 8,000 plus still does even though your award was from a couple of years ago . ect, ect, you get the point .

ya see what they are doing in this case is paying you in 2017 an award retroactive from 2012 or 2006 or whenever . either way an outstanding balance . so COLA must be applied if I'm correct .

if not this increase will be the only part of the award that has never had COLA applied properly .

propat

by **bigrex** Tue 24 Jan 2017, 00:13

Iceman, the way VAC does it, is if you had a reassessment, where it increases from 10% to 40%, they will pay the 30% at the current rate, instead of the 40% amount minus the previous payment, which costs the Veteran money.

Example 10% in 2006 was $25000, and a 30% award in 2016 was roughly $93000, for a total of $118000. Yet a 40% award in 2016 was roughly $124000, for a difference of over $6000.

by johnny211 Mon 23 Jan 2017, 15:17

Vaincre - I asked on my vac account when the letters where coming out. But it appears it's a state secret. They gave me the parrot announcement. So who knows? VVV,,,

by Guest Mon 23 Jan 2017, 14:46

I think the fairest way to do the retro is to add the difference in percentage from the $360,000 for each percentage award received.

If there are one or more awards received, each award would be topped up against the $360,000 for their received percentage at the time of the award.

by **Iceman** Mon 23 Jan 2017, 10:30

propat wrote:even though your award was subject to COLA till 2015 that doesn't nessisarely mean the rest of it you will receive in 2017 will be .
propat

let me ask this one then.

if someone was awarded, lets say 10% in 2012.
it then went under re-assessment, and was revised to be let's say 40% in 2016, 4 years later

If anyone has had a reassessment at a later year, Was the assessment value difference paid out, or just the percentage difference paid out?

if the value difference was paid out, was it at the original rate, or the rate at the date of the reassessment

by vaincre Mon 23 Jan 2017, 09:32

Do you think that we will receive an ACC letter on an increase in the amount of the allowance and a permanent deficiency allowance at the end of January

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