{"id":16910,"date":"2019-09-23T15:15:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-23T19:15:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.benefitscanada.com\/news\/scheer-vows-to-overhaul-veterans-pension-system-clear-benefits-application-backlog-136054"},"modified":"2019-09-23T15:15:32","modified_gmt":"2019-09-23T19:15:32","slug":"scheer-vows-to-overhaul-veterans-pension-system-clear-benefits-application-backlog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2019\/09\/23\/scheer-vows-to-overhaul-veterans-pension-system-clear-benefits-application-backlog\/","title":{"rendered":"Scheer vows to overhaul veteran\u2019s pension system, clear benefits application backlog"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Staff<\/span> | September 23, 2019 <\/p>\n

Andrew Scheer, leader of the federal Conservatives, is promising to create a new pension system for veterans and clear the backlog of their benefits applications within two years, if he\u2019s elected prime minister next month.<\/p>\n

He called the current pension system messy. \u201cThe reality is, just saying thank you is not enough,\u201d Scheer told a press scrum in Canoe Cove, Prince Edward Island on Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Liberal\u2019s overhauled benefits system, which took effect in April 2019, was criticized last February<\/a> in a report from Yves Giroux, the parliamentary budget officer.<\/p>\n

Read: Reimbursing benefits key unresolved issue for Veterans Affairs, says report card<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Specifically, the report noted veterans with the most severe injuries would be worse off under the new system, even though the benefits were slightly more generous on average. \u201cFrom the perspective of the veteran, virtually all clients would be better off if they received the benefits of the (pre-2006) Pension Act,\u201d the report said.<\/p>\n

It also noted the older system was more costly than the two iterations that followed, at about $50 billion in today\u2019s dollars. The subsequent New Veterans Charter, implemented under Stephen Harper\u2019s Conservative government cost $29 billion, while the latest Liberal system was projected to cost $32 billion, according to the PBO\u2019s report.<\/p>\n

Read: Veterans Affairs accused of skipping consultations on Pensions for Life<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

In examining Scheer\u2019s latest pension proposal for veterans, the PBO estimated that bringing pension benefits for back up to where they were under the pre-2006 model, the Veterans Well-Being Act, would begin at a cost of $103 million. The following year, the cost would drop to $51 million and would slowly decrease each year to wind up at $48 million by 2028-29.<\/p>\n

Read the full article at BenefitsCanada.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Staff | September 23, 2019 Andrew Scheer, leader of the federal Conservatives, is promising to create a new pension system for veterans and clear the backlog of their benefits applications within two years, if he\u2019s elected prime minister next...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16910"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16910\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}