Form vets have to fill out yearly or lose benefits??

Sleeping Dog wrote:

By the Bay wrote:Hi Sleeping Dog,
I just sent you a message with my copy of the Annual Declarations of Disability Program Benefits form so you can see what it looks like. Sorry for the white-out but I needed to erase my private info because it's a VAC auto-fill form.
Hope this help
Cheers,
By the Bay

thanks, I think I never had to do one, because they know there is no change in my status as whenever a vet fills out a claim, they ask about other injuries, married, kids etc. So I’m sure they know it’s up to date without actually doing a firm, at least that’s my guess

I really don't think VAC uses any rhyme or reason when they decide which veteran needs to fill out their "required" forms since they do not practise treating all veterans' files equally. Simply put, they do whatever they please...If we have learned anything from VAC, it is their ability to save a buck. We all know that VAC will use this power to cut-off Veterans' benefits in hopes to save money which is their true mandate, to save $$$$ and return the unspent portion back to the Treasury's coffers. When VAC stopped my disability payments, they also stopped paying for my psychological treatment and medications. No pension = no treatments for pensioned conditions. There was no temporary intreuption in my disability payment...They flat-out refused to accept my late signed forms which meant I would have been required to appeal their decision in terminating my pension. I think they expected me to lump it.... What they didn't expect was for me to lawyer up. In my case, VAC was in the wrong because my file didn't show any evidence for their request of an Annual Declarations of Disability Program Benefits form to be mailed out to me or a time stamp of the request before my benefits were cancelled. BTW, everything that is mailed out to a Veteran is logged in his/her file.  Of course, they apologized for the boo-boo and made it out to be a clerical errors. VAC has had many of those "clerical errors" issues of late.


Cheers,
By the Bay

By the Bay wrote:Hi Sleeping Dog,
I just sent you a message with my copy of the Annual Declarations of Disability Program Benefits form so you can see what it looks like. Sorry for the white-out but I needed to erase my private info because it's a VAC auto-fill form.
Hope this help
Cheers,
By the Bay

thanks, I think I never had to do one, because they know there is no change in my status as whenever a vet fills out a claim, they ask about other injuries, married, kids etc. So I’m sure they know it’s up to date without actually doing a firm, at least that’s my guess

Don't know if this is important but this individua was in the Reserve's.  I don't know much about the system (PA, NVC, PFL, WBA) when the vet is a reservist but I do know some of their VAC benefits are different then reg force vets as well as the rules.

I wouldn't worry to much about forms, i suspect the individual was milking the system for everything he could get. I pay my own way claim nothing i like it like that, if i couldn't afford it that would be different. I leave them alone and they leave me alone we have an understanding,
They will take advantage with veteran's if boundaries aren't established. If they are leaving you alone don't stir the pot !!!

Hi Sleeping Dog,
I just sent you a message with my copy of the Annual Declarations of Disability Program Benefits form so you can see what it looks like. Sorry for the white-out but I needed to erase my private info because it's a VAC auto-fill form.
Hope this help
Cheers,
By the Bay

Wildthing wrote:

Sleeping Dog wrote:

By the Bay wrote:Sleeping Dog,

My pension was approved in 2005. The theory is that you would not receive one if your not married or have dependants. But then, that theory goes out the window because I have heard many veterans not receive one when they should have because they were married and had kids.

Cheers,

By the Bay

I just don’t want to open my vac account some morning and read “ your disability payment has been frozen” because I never submitted a form, that I was never once informed about. I mean I’ve had probably 5 case managers over the years and the only way I learned about this form was reading it in a news article.

I wouldn't worry to much about forms from the past, im sure the PFL will have plenty in the future after all they have to keep the civil servants working and watch the insurance company grow its hard to stop the spread of pig weed !!!

, l know but people keep mentioning “old” forms but that article is from sept. 2017 which isn’t that long ago , I’m just wondering if it’s discontinued, or the vet in the article is making things up, or some where in between

Well, I've been pensioned since 04, and I was married with 2 kids. I likely filled out a similar form, at the time, but I have never had to sign any sort of declarations, stating that I'm still disabled, or that I'm still married (both kids have aged out), just to keep getting my disability pension, let alone every year.

Sleeping Dog wrote:

By the Bay wrote:Sleeping Dog,

My pension was approved in 2005. The theory is that you would not receive one if your not married or have dependants. But then, that theory goes out the window because I have heard many veterans not receive one when they should have because they were married and had kids.

Cheers,

By the Bay

I just don’t want to open my vac account some morning and read “ your disability payment has been frozen” because I never submitted a form, that I was never once informed about. I mean I’ve had probably 5 case managers over the years and the only way I learned about this form was reading it in a news article.

I wouldn't worry to much about forms from the past, im sure the PFL will have plenty in the future after all they have to keep the civil servants working and watch the insurance company grow its hard to stop the spread of pig weed !!!

By the Bay wrote:Sleeping Dog,

My pension was approved in 2005. The theory is that you would not receive one if your not married or have dependants. But then, that theory goes out the window because I have heard many veterans not receive one when they should have because they were married and had kids.

Cheers,

By the Bay

I just don’t want to open my vac account some morning and read “ your disability payment has been frozen” because I never submitted a form, that I was never once informed about. I mean I’ve had probably 5 case managers over the years and the only way I learned about this form was reading it in a news article.

I'm under the PA Act, NVC and now the PFL with the Additional Monthly Amount.

Who knows, all I know is I still have access to the form on My VAC Account and I filled it once as far as I can tell since I began receiving benefits from VAC while still serving in 2004.

Sleeping Dog,

My pension was approved in 2005. The theory is that you would not receive one if your not married or have dependants. But then, that theory goes out the window because I have heard many veterans not receive one when they should have because they were married and had kids.

Cheers,

By the Bay

By the Bay wrote:

Bruce72 wrote:I found an old form I had to fill out in 2016 called Declaration of Disability Program Benefits (VAC913), but the form no longer exists.

Here is an excerpt from the form I had to fill out.

Section 2 - Instructions

• Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is required to verify your continued eligibility for monthly disability
program benefits, which include disability pension, survivor benefits, Prisoner of War and Gallantry
Award.

• Verify all of the information identified in Section 1. If any of this information is incorrect, please call
us at the toll-free number listed at the back of this form.

• Complete Section 3, read and sign the back of the form (Section 4).

But I don't remember ever having to do it any other time, let alone remember doing it the one time. I have no recollection. If the form wasn't still in My VAC Account I'd have no idea I even filled it out.

I had my disability pension stopped in 2016 for not returning this form which VAC didn't send me in the first place. I went without my pension for 4 months. Once I got my lawyers involved, VAC returned my monthly pension payments.
I was informed that VAC required me to fill one out every year. However in June 2017, VAC stopped mailing me the forms.
I had made inquiries as to why they stopped but I received different answers. So every year, I do a preemptive strike and mail in my copy plus I upload a copy to My VACAccount.  They have not told me to stop.

Cheers,
By the Bay

are you conditions/claims all from after 2006? I've never filled out a form in my life,

Bruce72 wrote:I found an old form I had to fill out in 2016 called Declaration of Disability Program Benefits (VAC913), but the form no longer exists.

Here is an excerpt from the form I had to fill out.

Section 2 - Instructions

• Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is required to verify your continued eligibility for monthly disability
program benefits, which include disability pension, survivor benefits, Prisoner of War and Gallantry
Award.

• Verify all of the information identified in Section 1. If any of this information is incorrect, please call
us at the toll-free number listed at the back of this form.

• Complete Section 3, read and sign the back of the form (Section 4).

But I don't remember ever having to do it any other time, let alone remember doing it the one time. I have no recollection. If the form wasn't still in My VAC Account I'd have no idea I even filled it out.

I had my disability pension stopped in 2016 for not returning this form which VAC didn't send me in the first place. I went without my pension for 4 months. Once I got my lawyers involved, VAC returned my monthly pension payments.
I was informed that VAC required me to fill one out every year. However in June 2017, VAC stopped mailing me the forms.
I had made inquiries as to why they stopped but I received different answers. So every year, I do a preemptive strike and mail in my copy plus I upload a copy to My VACAccount. They have not told me to stop.

Cheers,
By the Bay

That would merely be sent out, to verify your family situation. After all, some benefits are passed on to a spouse, or dependant child, in the event of the Veteran passing away. It has nothing to do with declaring whether or not you are still disabled. The only form that used to be required annually, was for VIP, and that was changed several years ago.

bigrex wrote:I'm sorry, but something just isn't adding up. VAC cannot just stop payments of the PA pension. There would need to be a paper trail, and the only reason that they can withhold the PA pension, is if the Veteran refuses to get treatment. And even they can only reduce it, by 50%. So even though VAC is capable  of pulling off some highly shady stuff, I don't think the Veteran is telling the truth. It strains credibility to believe, that someone that would notice something like VAC being charged for prescriptions, instead of the Province, wouldn't realize that there is no such thing as an Annual Declaration of Disability benefit form? Or how is it, that he claimed he sent them to VAC, even though the forms don't exist? I don't know if he's trying to get money out of the government, for some alleged wrongdoing, or from the general public, by creating a Go Fund Me page, and using the Media to get his false story out there, or if it's just to get his 15 minutes of fame.  I don't like thinking that a Veteran would stoop to those levels, but I also realize that just because someone wore the uniform, doesn't mean that they are automatically telling the truth all the time, or above reproach.

I know many of us here spout about the “ shady “ practices of VAC and yet there are cases where I think they are in the right. When I read this story it just didn’t seem right, but I’m surprised how many newspapers run articles concerning vets without fact checking, maybe because vets getting the shaft sells...whether or not the story is true. Just the other day I read on a FB page about a “ soldier” in sask who said he was turned away by VAC so he turned to the Legion for help. The Legion in question hired the guy and he now runs their bar. The story was unique because the troop who posted said this new member of his legion was telling everyone he had “ 30 kills in Afghanistan”. Now this “vet” says VAC is paying him disability. A little research by vets who were there showed no record of this guy and it turns out he was either injured or released in his basic training ( no wonder VAC turned him away, no record of service, no medical file). Worse yet, a deeper internet search revealed the guy had been involved in an armed robbery in 2011, and is/was part of some kkk type group, sons of Odin, or something like that. All this from random investigation, and yet according to the guy who made the original post the Legion Branch is either unaware of this information or doesn’t care. It’s sickening.