# 2024-028 Pay and Benefits, Recruitment Allowance

Case summary

F&R Date: 2024-10-23

The grievor argued that due to an error in recording his marital status on enrolment, he did not receive the Post Living Differential (PLD) benefit while undergoing training.

The Director General Compensation and Benefits, acting as the Initial Authority, refused to accept the grievance on the grounds that it was submitted outside the time limit prescribed in the paragraph 7.06(1) of the Queen's Regulations and Orders for the Canadian Forces.

The Committee noted that allowances and benefits for the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members are set by the Treasury Board and the CAF has no authority to deviate from them. To be eligible for the PLD benefit on enrolment pursuant to the Compensation and Benefits instructions for the Canadian Forces 205.45, the grievor was required to have been posted to a unit in a PLD Area (PLDA) (i.e. assigned to duties at a unit in a PLDA) and have a principal residence located in a PLDA. Moreover, the policy defines a qualifying principal residence upon enrolment as a dwelling occupied by the member or their dependents, situated at the place where the member's household goods and effects (HG&E) were located on enrolment if that was a place of duty, from which he had not been authorized to move the HG&E at public expense.

The Committee found that the place of enrolment was not a place of duty for the grievor, nor did he perform “normal military duties” in that location. As the grievor's circumstances did not meet the purpose and criteria for eligibility for PLD set out in the applicable policy, the Committee found that the grievor was not entitled to the PLD benefit upon enrolment in the CAF.

The Committee recommended that the Final Authority not afford redress.