- Reaction score
- 114
- Points
- 680
ArmyVern said:**"Death Benefit" more commonly referred to as the "Survivors Death Benefit" which is what causes the confusion. The Death Benefit is commonly called the Survivors Benefit because it is paid only to the surviving spouse/child(ren) of the deceased member. The fact that this is not payable to parents is again making the news as well.
I feel the need to expand on the issue of parents of single soldiers not receiving this benefit as it is again being brought into the spotlight.
Reproduced under the Fairdealings provision of the Copyright Act:
From the Globe & Mail:
Letters to Ottawa unanswered, Dinnings say
GLORIA GALLOWAY
Globe and Mail Update with Canadian Press
May 30, 2007 at 1:05 PM EDT
...
Mr. Dinning has also written to Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ask why the families of married soldiers receive a $250,000 death benefit and the families of unmarried soldiers get nothing.
...
This refers to the VAC "Death Benefit."
My heart absolutely aches for the Dinnings and for the great loss which they have suffered. This can not be easy for them. But each time I see this issue raised, I think to myself "Yes, it is unfair but..."
If this benefit were paid to the parents of a single member, would that then be fair to the members who were married and/or had dependant children?
Would those married members then get a higher benefit as those children's future still needs to be provided for? Their future education still needs to be provided for.
Would it be fair for the 2 parents of a single member to receive this 250K? Would it really be fair if fallen members with a spouse and 2 or 3 or 4 children who have now forever lost that spouses income get the same amount towards their future support?
And if the parents of a single member get it...is it really fair NOT to give it to the parents of a married member too? Are a married members parents any less deserving of it upon their soldier-childs death than that single members parents?
Do we take the 250K and divy it equally up amongst them all on a per person basis? Each parent of every fallen soldier getting the same amount as a soldier's child? Somehow that doesn't seem quite fair to me either.
This is a vicious circle. There simply needs to be a cutoff somewhere, and I agree with that cutoff being where it is now. This 250K is intended to ensure that a deceased soldiers spouse and/or children can financially survive above the subsistence level after the members death and it is they who should, first and foremost, who should be afforded the opportunity to do so with payment of this benefit.