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Decision
The Appellant is not entitled to further retroactive payments of the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) survivor’s pension and child's benefits.
Overview
[1] The Appellant’s application for a CPP survivor’s pension and child’s benefits was date stamped on November 29, 2016Footnote 1. In February 2016, the contributor was presumed to have died on September 14, 2009Footnote 2.
[2] The application was reviewed by the Minister and initially deemed to have been received on April 5, 2012. The Appellant was granted the benefits with 11 months retroactivity (May 2011) from the deemed date of April 5, 2012.
[3] The Appellant requested a reconsideration of her survivor’s pension and the child’s benefits start date. The Minister accepted the reconsideration request and in reviewing the file, determined that the survivor's pension and child’s benefits application should not have been deemed to be received on April 5, 2012. The effective date was corrected to December 2015 as the effective date was determined to be 11 months retroactive from the original receipt date of the application on November 29, 2016. The child’s benefits effective dates were also deemed to be the same as the survivor's pension, December 2015. An overpayment of $21,018.09, which resulted from the change of effective dates, was remitted by the Minister and the Appellant’s survivor's pension effective date remained as December 2015.
Issue
[4] Is the Appellant entitled to greater retroactive payments of the CPP survivor's pension and child’s benefits?
Analysis
[5] The Appellant’s four children were each receiving disabled contributor child's (DCC)
benefits as their father, the contributor, was receiving a CPP disability pension. When the contributor’s whereabouts were determined to be unknown, his disability benefits as well as the DCC benefits were suspended effective December 2011.
[6] Based on the evidence, on April 5, 2012, the Appellant was informed that the DCC benefits were suspended as the contributor's address was unknown.
[7] The Appellant applied for a CPP survivor's pension on November 29, 2016. She also submitted a Statutory Declaration-Separation of Legal Spouses or Common-law Partners formFootnote 3, indicating that she and the contributor had last lived together in September 2006. The Appellant was granted the survivor’s pension benefits with 11 months retroactivity (May 2011) from the deemed date of April 5, 2012.
[8] The Appellant requested a reconsideration of her survivor’s pension and the child’s benefits start date. She requested that the benefits effective be October 2009 as she had been told in conversations with Service Canada staff that her survivor's pension would be retroactive to the contributor’s date of death once the date of death was established. She added that the effective date of May 2011 was due to delays in a letter being sent to her explaining why the benefits had stopped. She was notified in writing of the benefits having been suspended on April 5, 2012.
[9] After a review, the Minister determined that the deemed date of April 5, 2012 of the Appellant’s survivor's pension application was an error. The Minister concluded that the original receipt date of her application should not have been changed and that the receipt date should be November 29, 2016. The Minister submitted that in no case would a survivor's pension be paid more than 11 months before the date of applicationFootnote 4, the effective date of the survivor’s pension was therefore December 2015.
[10] The child’s benefits effective dates were also deemed to be the same as the survivor's pension, December 2015. A child’s benefit is payable the later of the month following the month in which the contributor died, the month following the month in which the child was born, but in no case can the benefit be paid earlier than the twelfth month preceding the month in which the application was receivedFootnote 5.
[11] These changes resulted in amounts overpaid but as it was due to the Minister's error, the Minister requested that these amounts be remitted and will not have to be repaid by the Appellant.
[12] The Appellant testified that she could not apply sooner for the benefits as it took a very long time to determine the presumed date of the contributor’s death. Therefore, her and her children’s benefits should be retroactive to the presumed date of the contributor’s passing in 2009.
Conclusion
[13] The application for the survivor's pension and child’s benefits was received on November 29, 2016 and in accordance with the legislation, the survivor's pension and the child’s benefits were paid at the earliest date possible in December 2015. Therefore, based on the evidence and the CPP, the appeal is dismissed.