Former Part-Time Soldiers Now Waiting up to 2 Years For Severance

[Teager]

The Canadian Press
Published Monday, February 16, 2015 5:21PM EST
OTTAWA -- Part-time soldiers who've left the military now face longer waits -- some almost two years -- for severance pay in a moribund system National Defence had promised to fix.
Former military ombudsman Pierre Daigle investigated a series of complaints in the late summer and early fall of 2013 when reservists, unlike their full-time counterparts, were waiting a year, sometimes longer, to receive the mandatory payouts after shedding their uniforms.
Maj. Cindy Tessier, spokeswoman for the personnel and legal branch of National Defence, says the average wait time now is 21 months following the member's release date.
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She says processing a reservist's severance takes longer because each personnel file undergoes an audit to verify eligible service.
As of last week, there was a backlog of 2,754 files.
Former corporal Nicholas Vanderplas, of London, Ont., has been in the system just over 20 months and says he's fed up waiting for the $4,500 which is owed him for six years as a part-time member of the infantry.

Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/former-part-time-soldiers-now-waiting-up-to-2-years-for-severance-pay-1.2238996#ixzz3RxkgmR8e

I was hoping only a year wait for mine tops.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I waited a long time for mine (well over a year). Finally emailed all major party pers, CPC, NDP, Lib. The only ones that responded were the NDP. I was personally contacted, by phone, within a few days of the NDP enquiring, by the people that administer the program. They asked a few qualifying questions, sent me the papers in a few days and I had my payment in two weeks.

Bureaucrats hate it when politicians start shining a light on them and start asking questions that the sitting government can't answer.

BTW, just for shiggles, the local MP Brian Masse (NDP) was given carriage of the file by his party. However, he passed the whole thing to Bruce Moncour ( a Vet and candidate for the next election), who got the results acting on MP Masse's behalf.

Try it. Five minutes of email time might solve your problem. If no action from your own MP, try Bruce.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I waited a long time for mine (well over a year). Finally emailed all major party pers, CPC, NDP, Lib. The only ones that responded were the NDP. I was personally contacted, by phone, within a few days of the NDP enquiring, by the people that administer the program. They asked a few qualifying questions, sent me the papers in a few days and I had my payment in two weeks.

Bureaucrats hate it when politicians start shining a light on them and start asking questions that the sitting government can't answer.

BTW, just for shiggles, the local MP Brian Masse (NDP) was given carriage of the file by his party. However, he passed the whole thing to Bruce Moncour ( a Vet and candidate for the next election), who got the results acting on MP Masse's behalf.

Try it. Five minutes of email time might solve your problem. If no action from your own MP, try Bruce.

I used to work in the Provincial Government here and can back you up on that. If you really need something sorted out, and you're not one of the usual 'whiners', you should get pretty good responses from your MP/MLA/MPP.

 

[Eye In The Sky]

Even 'just a year' is a ridiculously long time.  Anything over 2 months is "unsat" in my opinion.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

I used to work in the Provincial Government here and can back you up on that. If you really need something sorted out, and you're not one of the usual 'whiners', you should get pretty good responses from your MP/MLA/MPP.

Prior to that, I was getting Pte & Cpls that all they could tell me was "That it is in the system and your July last year retirement date won't be looked at for another 15 months."

Well beyond the accepted date, and then only looked at. It would likely be another 9-12 months to resolution.

And no, they would not put me through to their boss. And if they did, I got a voice mail to leave a message that was never returned.

Call your MP and let them make the calls. They don't get ignored like normal, tax paying citizens that are entitled to hold their public servants to task.

 

[OldSolduer]

Bureaucrats hate it when politicians start shining a light on them and start asking questions that the sitting government can't answer.

That includes pumped up corporals and their superiors who seem to think they can dictate national policy.

The pumped up corporal comment I will explain later.

 

[Halifax Tar]

The pumped up corporal comment I will explain later.

It's later now...  ;D

 

[The_Falcon]

Mine was well over a year, release processed with effective date in Feb 2013, got my cheque in Sept 2014 :

 

[kratz]

Mine was well over a year, release processed with effective date in Feb 2013, got my cheque in Sept 2014 :

Your timeline matches mine within 30 days.

 

[bridges]

I know this is different from severance, but my "immediate" unreduced annuity from a medical release took two years to calculate and start payments.  This was a Res F pension.  When anyone gets out, they'd better have a steady source of income for a while, and not be relying on funds they're owed from DND. 

 

[geo]

retired in june 2014 and receved the allowance in lieu of gratuity in october 2014.

BTW it's no longer supposed to be a severance gratuity... you don't have to get out to receive paymnent.
It was converted to an allowance in lieu of gratuit... and newbies will no longer qualify for a golden handshake on the way out.... sigh!

 

[George Wallace]

retired in june 2014 and receved the allowance in lieu of gratuity in october 2014.

BTW it's no longer supposed to be a severance gratuity... you don't have to get out to receive paymnent.
It was converted to an allowance in lieu of gratuit... and newbies will no longer qualify for a golden handshake on the way out.... sigh!

What kind of notice did they send you for your PIL?  Was it a statement as to how much they deposited into your account, just a notice that payment had been made, or nothing at all? 

I got out in 2013, and have had no satisfaction trying to get that info from them.  I got one letter with numerous errors in name, comment that my OR had made mistakes in may calculations and information stating that they were working on may PIL, but nothing stating what the final amount would be, nor if it was being deposited into my account.  At first, when I tried to correct some of their errors, but their voice mail was so full, it could not be accessed.  A year later I managed to leave a voice message, to which I got a call back over a month later, telling me that my request was passed on to another department.  A month later I was referred to the Release Section.  To this date, two years later, I have NO STATEMENT as to the amount of my PIL.  NO DEPOSIT STATEMENT.  NO T4 for the PIL.  No faith in CAF administration.

 

[geo]

notice - I got no notice.
a deposit in my bank account.... that's it.
In my case, it was the max, at 30+ years, at my last pay rate.... almost but not quite.....
never got an explanation...
when I got my DND T4 for 2014, I was able to piece together my overpayments to CPP & UI.... close, but not quite....

Loat of crap if you ask me

 

[George Wallace]

So?  Many of us may not have any clue at all if they paid us or not.  Fantastic.

 

[geo]

Well said!