Good afternoon, Mr. Chair, committee members and honourable guests. It is my honour to be here today to join the meeting.
I'm Eric Li, associate professor at the faculty of management of UBC's Okanagan campus. I would like the opportunity to share the key findings and recommendations of the qualitative study of financial well-being of military veteran survivors, funded by the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research.
The well-being of military veteran survivors is insufficiently understood. This raises concerns regarding the inability of spouses who marry or enter into common-law relationships with the veteran after he or she turns 60 to access the superannuation benefits.
To better understand the scale of this issue, between the months of March and October 2020, we interviewed seven survivors and three veterans. Even though the participant pool is relatively small, these 10 interviews were sufficient for our research team to capture four themes related to the changes in financial well-being. These are survivors' adjustment and compromise in lifestyle, concerns about home ownership, financial stability and independence, and their views on current pension policies.
Our findings indicate that being ineligible to inherit veterans' pensions makes a very large difference to the lives of survivors. The participants who did not receive veterans' pensions had to make some drastic changes to their lifestyles. For example, one participant had to sell her townhouse after her husband died in order to reduce her expenditures, as she now has to be very careful with her expenses. Her opportunities for socialization have been limited, leading to loneliness and depression.
Some irregular and unexpected expenses—such as prescription glasses, home repairs or renovations, or car maintenance—can cause extra stress for these survivors. Many also worry about their future, as they anticipate that their health-related costs will increase as they age. Struggles are even greater for those who are not eligible for veterans' pensions. Most military spouses are unable to sustain full-time employment and have limited personal income and savings.
Based on our findings, we offer three recommendations for policy and program review. First, to ensure that surviving partners of military veterans, who have also made many personal sacrifices, are recognized for their partnership with our veterans, the Government of Canada should consider removing the age limitation on pension inheritance.
Second, the Canadian government's programs and service operators should also be reviewed. Communication platforms should be streamlined to ensure ease of access to all programs, benefits, privileges, entitlements and associated eligibility criteria. In our study, we also recognized that peer support should be recognized and enabled to enhance support groups in other ways to ensure that survivors use social media or other communication platforms to support each other.
Third, survivors who enter into a relationship with a veteran late in life feel psychological strain due to various social stigmas. For instance, many of our participants mentioned that they're being labelled as “gold diggers”, which is unfair to this particular population. Those who received benefits upon their husband's death in service also feel guilty about getting money. These and other issues remain unaddressed, as the survivors are not provided counselling. Thus, social workers and psychologists should be made available to both veterans and their survivors.
In summary, our study showcases the struggles and challenges that veterans and their surviving spouses face. It is particularly noteworthy that survivors who married a veteran after his or her 60th birthday suffered the most, as the substantial cut in their income due to the loss of the military pension forced them to change their lifestyles considerably. Veterans who started a relationship after the age of 60 also concurred that the current policies on pension inheritance created uncertainty for their partners.
To end my presentation today, I would like to share two quotes from our research participants.
This is what one survivor told us: “My late husband was in the military for 32 years. He literally gave his life for the country. Now the legislation states that at age 60, you no longer are going to be interested in getting married. At age 60 you are too old to have a relationship any more. In normal circumstances, you can still have another 20 years with a partner. We do have concerns. The government really needs to look at that.”