PDSP Communiqué
FSNA has been advised by The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat that effective October 1, 2010 the contribution rates related to the Pensioners Dental Services Plan (PDSP) will change. The current costs are shared between the Government of Canada and the Plan Members on a 60% – 40% basis respectively. Effective October 1, 2010, these costs will be shared on a 50% – 50% basis, which entails an increase in monthly contribution rates for Plan Members..
For complete details on this change, please click on the PDSP Communiqué.
June 2nd, 2010 at 6:53 am
Well there we go! This is no doubt part of the new public service pension reform initiative. Let’s see what else they plan to scrape away from us. We better start speaking up now or forever old our peace.
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:48 am
I don’t understand?? Isn’t the ratio a fixed percentage based on some negotiated agreement? How can they arbitrarily change the sharing arrangement and impose a 30% increase on the membership with no means of negotiating? If it’s this easy to get out of their commitments due to budgetary constraints, I agree there will be much more to follow.
I suppose we could regress to our past and get rid of our dental programs as well as dental health. Unfortunately, there appears to be ever increasing proof of the ramifications of reducing dental care with respect to our health care system (i.e. heart and general overall health).
June 3rd, 2010 at 8:23 pm
Thank you FSNA for posting the Communique in an open format. Sun Life sent an advisory e-mail that required identification and Login, with no guarantee that personal information they gained thereby would be appropriately protected. They could have posted the information – as you have – in the open. Thanks again!
June 4th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
It always struck me as particularly unfair that the Public Service Dental Plan is provided to employees at no charge, but when we retire and our income drops by half or more, we have to start paying premiums of around $300/year for a benefit that was previously free.
If there are strains on the Plan, why not start charge premiums for those best in a position to pay them: current employees? Instead, pensioners are whacked with increases ranging from 25 – 32%
Of particular note is the Government’s explanation that:
“The change…..ensures that the costs of the Plan are fairly
balanced between the Plan Members and the Government
of Canada AND ULTIMATELY CANADIAN TAXPAYERS.”
(My capitalizing)
This is the same rational our employer used to justify the 6 year wage freeze we never recovered from, and the years of wage increases that seldom matched increases in the cost-of-living. It won’t surprise me in the least when the same rational is used in future to nickel-and-dime retirees out of their hard-earned pensions and benefits.
June 5th, 2010 at 10:04 am
As much as I sympathize with pensioners who are faced with an increase in premium here is something to consider.
I am retiring from a federal crown corporation.
Sometime prior to my being employed the decision was made to opt out of the federal dental plan.
The plan taken was with a private insurer.
While employed I too benefitted from employer paid premiums.
I am ineligible to join the federal dental plan in rertirement and therefore to continue on with my current coverage my payments for dental for my wife and I will be $120. per month.
June 7th, 2010 at 4:31 pm
I agree with RB in that we have to start speaking up now to defend our benefits as retirees.
If the employer had left the $30 billion dollars they stole from the pension fund, there would have been more than enough now to cover a dental plan ourselves PLUS look after the future retirees and their families too… and as a colleague of mine suggested”we could even have our dental work done in Hawaii !)
By the way, at the same time the employer was taking this so called ‘surplus money’ from our pension fund, they were saying out the other side of their mouth that there was no money to support a dental plan for retirees. In the recent PDSP communique sent out, the increase is to lessen the burden of our dental plan on the taxpayer. Well, I say, if they would have left that money in the pension fund, there would never have been a need to burden the taxpayer with a dental plan, now would there?
They also state that the increase will be ‘small’… well don’t believe it… the increases are 28% for a single, 25.3% for a couple, and 32.5% for a family. This is disgusting for a family when there is only one pension cheque coming in to support all of them, and it’s not so easy as a retiree to go out and get a job to subsidize this increase.
Gee… With only a .5% indexation rate this year… will they maybe increase the indexation rate next year to help cover the increase in the dental benefit? Wouldn’t it be nice to get a 32.5% indexation rate?
In closing, for many years federal public employees have been underpaid in comparison to their counterparts in the private sector… but our choice was to have better benefits rather than the pay increases that were enjoyed in the private sector. Now, because we have the better benefits, the private sector is pressuring the employer to erode these benefits away from us. SHAME ON THEM IF THEY DO! We have paid into our pension and our benefits… and we should not be bullied or chastized for doing so.
Now the private sector has the example they have long waited for… “If the feds are eroding benefits, that’s our long awaited cue… now we can too.” Our Canadian Health Care program is world renowned, and we can’t let a bunch of greedy CEO’s and senior civil servants destroy it one bit. It’s time to take up the fight and stand up for what we value as Canadians… our health and our dignity.
June 7th, 2010 at 4:51 pm
My wife and I were both public servants. Interesting that federal employees are now able to coordinate benefits, which, in the end pay 100% of their dental work. We have been able to coordinate benefits under our public service health care plan for a few years but this increase of almost 31% for our dental is irresponsible. I hope that the FSNA will go to bat for us but if we as pensioners do not protest to our Federal Ministers nothing will happen. Our meager dental benefits are being eroded. I have emailed PM Harper (pm@pm.gc.ca) and my MP David Mcguinty but no reply yet. Looks like they just do not care.
June 8th, 2010 at 7:14 am
When I read the newsrelease from Sunlife, it sounded to me like a good news government press release. In fact, it was notifying us that our pensions would be reduced by $6.46 per month. Not a huge amount in actual dollars, but it is the principle of making unilateral changes that is of real concern. FSNA must take this up with government, as it is part and parcel of our pension plan.
June 10th, 2010 at 1:23 pm
Increase in Dental premiums
With all due respect and gratitude to the efforts that FSNA put in to ensure that retirees had the benefit of a dental plan at all, where were they on this recent increase advice? It came out-of-the blue, is, in no-way fair and equitable and only serves to continue to erode our fixed income base.
Like other retirees who have commented on this, why is it fair that one only pays preiums when their income is vastly reduced, while full income civil servants pay 0 for the same benefit? This inequity always bothered me when I was employed with the Feds and now, as a retiree, it just drives the message home to me that I was right. This is a completely unethical grab from retirees!
June 14th, 2010 at 2:00 pm
In a recent newsbulletin, it is reported that the Chief Actuary of Canada stated that the Public Service Pension Plan is actually running a surplus, so why are they increasing our dental premiums? Is this another way for the government to punish and chastize seniors who have pre-paid into a plan (as a deferred salary)?
Why are they picking on the elderly people in this country, who are the sick, poor, and vulnerable because we don’t have the health or the money to fight the corruption going on in our highest levels of government?
June 16th, 2010 at 9:30 pm
Which benefits are negotiated and which (like the dental plan) can be arbitrarily changed at the whim of the Board? Was FSNA consulted?
We, through FSNA, must take a strong stand on this change in the contribution ratio for dental benefits – a reduction from 60/40 to 50/50 is huge! What’s the next target going to be? Health care plan premiums, pension indexing? This cannot be simply tolerated without a fight – it may well be the thin edge of the wedge for pension benefits!
July 5th, 2010 at 11:18 am
For your information folks… one reason the government is using to support their PDSP premium increases is that the costs of dental work is increasing…
My question is… does the increase of dental work matter when the PDSP plan only pays a maximum of $1500 per member per year???? It doesn’t matter what dentists charge because the PDSP plan only pays up to $1500… so dental costs have no relevancy when a maximum is implemented like this.
The employer’s argument that dental costs are increasing and that’s why premiums have to be increased is hogwash!! No matter what a dentist charges, the maximum to be paid by the PDSP is $1500.
September 26th, 2010 at 4:36 pm
It seems that the government sees fit to increase what the retirees are to pay for premium for Dental coverage. It is a shame that us retired pensioners are have to dish out more and more on premiums while our benefits are getting smaller and smaller. I wish to get on the bandwagon to fight for this unfairnmess. There was no fore warning about this change and now we are almost upon October when the change is take place? What an underhanded ploy this is!!!!