Afghan war veteran battling DND over privacy violation and benefit payment snafu
Afghan war veteran battling DND over privacy violation and benefit payment snafu
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/afghan-war-veteran-battling-dnd-080055623.html
Publish Date: 2026-06-22 04:00:00
Source Domain: ca.news.yahoo.com
An Afghan war veteran is battling with National Defence after the department violated her privacy by providing her banking information to another military member and then erroneously transferring a payment for that individual into her account.
The Department of National Defence is now demanding that retired Sgt. Tara Bertram pay back the $21,794.89 it sent her by mistake. DND has also warned Bertram that she could face interest charges if there are delays in paying back the money.
The debacle started in the summer of 2025, when Bertram, a combat veteran who originally served in the army in Afghanistan before transferring to the air force, was leaving the Canadian Forces on a medical disability.
With a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, she was provided a flurry of payments from the Canadian Forces. Those included a final paycheque, payment for unused leave, back pay, severance pay, payment for long-term disability and disability benefits from Veterans Affairs.
In January 2026, Bertram received a notice from DND saying that she had received severance payments of $17,187.24 in August and $2,872.73 in December that were supposed to go to another military member. DND was demanding the return of the money.
“I didn’t pick up on the extra payment,” said Bertram, who is in New Brunswick. “My mental health is so bad I don’t manage the finances. My spouse does that and they wouldn’t have known.”
When Bertram dug further into what had happened, the department admitted to an “administrative error.” The money was supposed to go to another individual with a similar last name.
But Bertram, 44, said the department’s story didn’t make sense.
In a Jan. 7, 2026, letter to DND, she pointed out that pay was not processed based on someone’s last name, but rather on an individual’s military service number.
“This error makes no sense to me, furthermore this error was not made just once, it was made twice,” Bertram wrote to a DND benefits specialist….
