After a bomb-scarred tour in Afghanistan, a descent into a cloud of anger and anxiety and forcible retirement from the military due to his psychological problems, Kevin Sweeney thought he had finally hit rock-bottom last January.

As he waited for his first pension payment on that winter day about a month after his release, a government case manager charged with easing his transition into civilian life referred the 45-year-old veteran, a married father of two, to the Kingston food bank.

The suggestion left him feeling humiliated, but it only foreshadowed the problems ahead as he was forced to wait five months to begin receiving a military pension — a $1,188.91 monthly cheque that he earned during more than a decade of service to the country.

As he waited, it felt like his world was caving in. Sweeney, his wife Lorie and their children were forced to live off of donated gift cards for food and gas; they had a charity paying their mortgage and utilities; and he had to pay out of pocket for the medication that keeps the mental scars of his deployment in check.

“To be honest, it seems like it would have been better had we died over there. Then they could hoist us up as heroes, because in Canada a war hero is somebody who died in combat,” Sweeney said in an interview.

Sweeney’s is a tale of a man who suffered from a faceless and troubled bureaucracy, but it is not unique. Canadian Forces Ombudsman Gary Walbourne said the military has been working on a 13,000-case pension backlog that has resulted in 1,300 complaints to his office since 2007.

In response to questions from the Star, Walbourne’s office said that the problem appears to be caused by an overloaded and understaffed department within National Defence that is responsible for processing pension applications.

There have also been nearly 20,000 requests from reservists who want to pay money in lieu of service in order to access or increase their military pensions — a process known as a “buy back.” The sheer number of requests has overwhelmed the Canadian Forces Pension Services department, according to a letter that Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Jonathan Vance sent to the military ombudsman’s office in March.

A spokesperson for the defence department said the goal is to have a retiring member’s pension application processed in time for their release, but files can become more complex if an individual has served in both the regular and reserve forces, or if information is missing or incorrect.

Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan, a military veteran himself, considers the pension delays “unacceptable” and “he is committed to fixing the problem,” his spokesman, Jordan Owens, said in a statement.

Starting on July 4, the department of public works will take over responsibility for processing military pensions — a development that is intended to modernize the application system and clear up the backlog by December 2017.

Public works has set a goal of ensuring initial pension payments are made to retiring soldiers, sailors and air force personnel within 45 days of receiving all the necessary paperwork, said department spokesman Jean-François Létourneau.

While there has been a sharp increase in the number of Afghan war veterans with physical and psychological injuries being medical released from the force in recent years, Walbourne said those individuals are given “priority” status over other pension applicants and do not appear to be responsible for the delays.

But the ill and injured are being affected by the delays, resulting in frustration, uncertainty and despair that only compound the problems that many of them are already living with.

Some are falling through the cracks, and both the military and Veterans Affairs Canada have been funding charities and non-profit groups that are now acting as a social safety net for at-risk veterans.

The Royal Canadian Legion operates a national program for homeless veterans that was launched in Ontario and has helped more than 450 former military member by providing things like rent, transportation, groceries, clothing and furniture.

Dave McGregor, executive director of the legion’s Ontario branch, said pension delays are indeed prompting some veterans to access their services.

“I wouldn’t say it’s frequent but it seems to be happening more than it was in the past,” he said.

In Kingston, Sweeney initially contested his forced release from the military, asking his superior officers for more time to improve his psychological condition and, perhaps, be able to work again. In a letter of appeal, he also explained that Lorie, his wife, had suffered a brain injury and was unable to work, meaning that retirement was certain to be a financial strain.

It was to no avail. He ceased to be a soldier in December 2015, about a week before Christmas. The military said it could not comment on the specifics of Sweeney’s pension fight because of privacy restrictions.

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The pension problems began almost immediately, Sweeney said. In January, he said he received a pension application, which he thought — correctly — that he had already completed in the months leading up to his discharge. When he inquired, he was instructed to call back in two weeks. He said he suspected his file was either lost or that processing had not yet started.

Next, he said he received an email from bureaucrats in Ottawa with more paperwork to complete, while also discovering that Veterans Affairs had him fill out and submit the wrong health insurance forms.

“I’m feeling like I’m getting wrapped around the bend,” Sweeney recalled. “The anxiety level is going up. I’m starting to get really angry and I have no idea what to do.”

The bills were piling up, forcing Sweeney to take out a second mortgage on the family’s home, he said. That’s when the family turned to Veterans Emergency Transition Services (VETS) Canada, a national charity that receives $300,000 a year from the federal government to help veterans in crisis.

The organization paid three months worth of mortgage and utility payments for the Sweeney family, and are helping about 10 other veterans, said Debbie Lowther, co-founder of the group.

“It should be very seamless and the people that we’ve helped, many of them have done everything right. They’ve planned for retirement, but then they have to spend their retirement savings to live on before they get their pension,” she said.

By February, Sweeney sought access to the monthly disability insurance payment of $2,000 that he was supposed to receive upon his release. But he learned that the Service Income Security Insurance Plan payments depended on his pension being approved. He said that the insurance company eventually approved the payments on the condition that he pay back the difference if his monthly entitlement was assessed at less than $2,000.

Access to health insurance was also blocked because of the pension delays, meaning that when Sweeney ran out of his antidepressants, he had to pay $97.53 out of his own pocket for the pills.

“It’s very possible you have a vet that is not only getting no money, but getting no drugs that they were on or no therapy at all because their pension hasn’t been released,” Sweeney said. “If he is the head person on the medical plan, none of his family can get any benefits. Everything is gone.”

In the Sweeneys’ case, that meant their daughter, who has asthma, was no longer covered for her medication, said Lorie Sweeney.

The pension application was finally processed in early April. The first cheque arrived on the 27th of the month, but it was only for $499.77 — the military deducted some $700, most of it back payments for medical and dental insurance coverage. In May, the cheque was for $508.25, with the bulk of the deductions going toward missed life insurance payments.

“We literally have been living off gift cards until the end of last month,” Lorie Sweeney said. “And if something doesn’t happen at the end of this month we’re going to have to live off of more gift cards.”