(Ottawa) Lawyers are trying to contact hundreds of thousands of people who are entitled to reimbursement as part of a class action against the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The lawsuit was filed after the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman discovered that the government had miscalculated its clients’ disability benefits and pensions beginning in 2003.
The government finally reached an out-of-court settlement in January, worth up to 817 million.
The problem was discovered by the ombudsman during a review of ministry documents after the government made changes to the disability benefit in 2016.
The ombudsman then realized that the Department of Veterans Affairs had not taken into account the provincial basic tax credit in calculating provincial income tax, but when the department realized of the error and subsequently corrected it, he neither informed nor reimbursed the people who had received less money.
Michel Drapeau’s firm was among five law firms that ultimately filed the class action in 2019. The suit also claimed that Veterans Affairs made other calculation errors, including failing to index benefits to inflation.
“When we looked at it, we found that there were actually a lot more benefits that had not been properly indexed over a longer period of time,” Drapeau said.
He explained that the miscalculations actually lasted 21 years, from 2003 to 2023, meaning the number of eligible veterans was significantly higher than initially believed.
Another 215,000 eligible people have died since then, and Drapeau said if survivors don’t file a claim, they won’t receive reimbursement. Eligible applicants may be surviving spouses, common-law partners, children, parents, siblings, nieces or nephews, or even the veteran’s estate.
“We try every possible means to prevent them,” Mr. Drapeau said. He specified that the lawyers had already launched a wanted notice on social networks, through advertising campaigns and by contacting the Royal Canadian Legion. Additionally, a letter was mailed to the last known addresses of approximately 200,000 people.
On average, the reimbursements are about $2,500. Under the settlement, approved by the Federal Court, 40 people are eligible for payments in excess of $35,000, but most reimbursements are less than $5,000.
Management and consulting firm KPMG has been retained to help people file their claims, which can be done online. The federal government is responsible for the costs of administering the claims and KPMG does not receive funding from the settlement itself.
The deadline to file a claim is March 19, 2025.