Veterans await government response to key benefits ruling
Posted May 2, 2012 06:03:07 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Veterans advocates say the federal government must review its veterans disability payment policy immediately, after a court ruled that benefit clawbacks are illegal.
A federal court ruled Tuesday that monthly Veterans Affairs pensions are not considered income, and therefore should not be used to offset money owed to former military personnel and RCMP officers.
NDP Veterans Affairs Critic, Peter Stoffer, tells News 95.7 that the government now has 30 days to appeal the decision – but he’s hoping a response won’t take that long.
“It is time to put this thing to bed,” Stoffer said. “It is time for the federal government to sit down with these disabled veterans and come up with a reasonable solution to solve that clawback problem.”
Federal government officials said they are reviewing the court’s decision.
“There’s not much review that has to happen,” said Stoffer. “The decision was very clear and the previous discussions have been very clear. It is time to put a stop to this and allow those disabled veterans the dignity they so rightfully deserve.”
Tuesday’s ruling comes after more than five years of legal wrangling over a class-action lawsuit launched by Porter’s Lake resident Dennis Manuge.
He tells News 95.7 he hopes the decision sets the stage for more improvements to veteran care.
“It provides hope for some of the other veterans and some of the other issues,” Manuge said. “There’s absolutely no reason why we can’t change things for the better for those veterans. Let’s make their life a little bit easier if, heaven forbid, something should happen.”
Lawyers representing Manuge and other veterans argued last November that the veterans’ benefits were being unjustly clawed back because the payments were unfairly deemed as income.
The lawyers said that veterans’ long-term disability benefits were being reduced by the amount of their disability pensions, with some of the most seriously injured not receiving any of their pension. In some cases, Ottawa’s policy cost some veterans as much as $3,500 per month, they argued.
Lawyers for the federal government cited other cases that have found such benefits to be income, adding that the definition of income can include a broad array of monies that are coming into a veteran’s household.
But Judge Robert Barnes agreed with Manuge, writing in his decision: “The practical consequences of the claimed offset is to substantially reduce or to extinguish the long-term disability coverage promised to members.”
He added this would create “a particularly harsh effect on the most seriously disabled Canadian Forces members who have been released from active service.”
“That is an outcome that could not reasonably have been intended and I reject it unreservedly.”
Manuge, 43, said the ruling is a significant victory after years of battles before ombudsmen, Parliament and the Senate.
The former vehicle technician was injured in an accident at Canadian Forces Base Petawawa just before being deployed to Bosnia in 2001. He left the military in 2003, suffering from a lower back injury and some bouts of depression.
Manuge launched the lawsuit against the government in 2007, saying he took the lead in the case because he was less seriously injured than many others and able to speak out.
Peter Driscoll, a lawyer for the veterans, said the decision could mean millions of dollars in retroactive compensation for former military members, if Ottawa doesn’t appeal.
“We’re overjoyed,” Driscoll said in a phone interview. “We’re pleased the court has found the clawbacks we’ve complained of are unlawful.”
Both he and Manuge urged the federal government not to appeal the decision, saying it would delay payments to veterans.
Jay Paxton, a spokesman for the defence minister, said Ottawa is studying the decision and considering its next steps.
“The government is committed to the care and well-being of Canadian Forces personnel and veterans,” Paxton said in an email.
“We take the ongoing care, health, well-being and benefits of military members and their families very seriously.”
Driscoll said thousands of veterans have been subjected to the clawbacks, estimating it would cost somewhere between $270 million and $340 million to stop and reimburse them.
