Military pension + Public service + LTD

Hi all,

I looked through the forums, but couldn’t quite find what I was looking for.

I did apply for LTD through Sunlife for the public service. Everything was approved, no issues. When filling the Sunlife form where it asks for income, it has PSSA, but no mention of military pension.

Upon approval of my claim and speaking with a case manager, I received a letter saying my claim was approved for X amount of money per month. But on that letter, it says to keep them informed of any retirement pension. So I called the case manager back and told him that I was in receipt of a military pension, and he said that this more than likely was an offset and that my Sunlife payment could be reduced maybe as much as by my monthly military pension’s amount.

If this happens, I will not be paid at 70% of my public service salary, but at about 32% of my salary….I am waiting for sunlife’s financial department to get back to me, but I wanted to check here if anybody has anything on this.

Is a military pension an offset for Sunlife’s disability?

Ask the claims manager to send you your master LTD policy. It will state exactly which pension programs Sun Life can deduct from your monthly LTD benefit. Most policies have CPP/QPP as a direct offset. Employer pensions are usually treated differently, and the employer pension must make you reach a certain % (85% for example) of your predisability income before they are able to use the some of the employer pension amount to offset your monthly LTD payment. Hope that made sense.

Were you receiving the pension before you were disabled? That might also matter.

Yes, I’ve been i receipt of my military pension since 2017, and went on disability in 2022.

Make sure your claim manager knows that. In writing.

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Did you have a chance to find out if Military Pension will be direct offset.
I am in similar situation, I have PSSA medical Pension which is 100% direct offset to LTD.
I also have deferred Pension with another Corporation (not receiving yet) but I don’t think it will be direct offset with Sunlife LTD, because it is not administered by PSSA.
Is your Military Pension administered under PSSA or CFSA?

I did find out, and a military pension is not an offset for LTD.

Military pensions are not PSSA and probably why they re not an offset for Sunlife LTD.

Sunlife told me that retirement and medical pensions are offset, but not military pensions.