New Legal action -VAC ELB clients

Personally, I don't think we should have to wait for the budget, afterall, the government has announced 1.15 million in funding for cenotaphs and other projects without it being set out in the budget, and that's just since May. In fact they announced $60000 for a bomber command museum in a town in Alberta that has a population of around 2 thousand (pork barreling, anyone?), so they should be able to make the changes before allotting it in the budget.

“I am happy to announce that our Government is taking action to harmonize our disability benefits at Veterans Affairs to reflect the planned changes to SISIP,” said Minister Blaney. “With these changes, Veterans Affairs’ disability pension will no longer be deducted from the Earnings Loss Benefit, as will be the case with the War Veterans Allowance and the Canadian Forces Income Support Benefit.

This is a very positive change for our men and women injured in service to Canada who will now receive the benefits and services they are entitled to. Our Government will continue to stand up for them the same way they have stood up for our great country.”

“Today's decision ensures that our Government's strong record of delivering for our men and women in uniform continues to meet the needs of those who need these benefits,” said Minister MacKay. “The Government acted in support of our members, past and present, because we believe that it is the right thing to do.”

Right now, i'm just waiting to see what Minister Blaney has to say about it. he said that he would release more info by the end of Aigust and here it is, the 7th of September and still no word. so until he actually releases some info, we do not know what the timeline looks like, or if they are not planning on paying it retro actively to July 1st. I think our first step, if they announce they do say that we'll have to wait until next year after the budget, with no retro payments, is to involve the VAC Ombudsmen and the media to start pressuring the government to act swiftly and fairly on this matter. I cannot see involving lawyers unless the Tories fail to live up to their promise and refuse to fix this on their own.

This will not effect me but because i do care for my fellow veteran , if i was in there shoes, I would consider contacting our legal team(because of the outstanding job they have done) about trying to launch a law suit regarding the clawback for ELB. VAC is not going to pay retro and the guys might not get it until summer 2013. This was over a year later after they annouced they were going to end the practice. This in my option is very unfair and really no reason for it. I just wanted it thrown out there because you guys are probably losing 20000 or more each and you have to wait. Outragous!!!!! and maybe you can use are case as an example.