Wife of missing man forced to seek lawyer in battle for survivors benefits after government denial

February 23, 2025 Canuck

The widow of a man who went missing two years ago is looking for a lawyer after the federal government formally denied her request for a survivor’s benefit under the Canada Pension Plan.

Earl Moberg’s body has never been found, so without an expensive legal process, his wife can’t prove he’s dead.

Brenda Moberg hoped extensive efforts to locate her husband Earl, who has dementia and was last seen wandering on Dec. 12, 2023, in Winnipeg’s River East area, would find him, but now she has accepted that he likely isn’t coming home.

Moberg has been fighting to get 60 per cent of her 81-year-old husband’s CPP since summer, but setbacks within the bureaucratic process have impacted her financially and emotionally.

Employment and Social Development Canada, the federal department that administers the Canada Pension Plan, suspended her husband’s CPP once she made them aware of his disappearance and inquired about the survivor’s benefit.

Moberg was told she would need his death certificate, which she didn’t have, and thousands of dollars for an estate lawyer to collect evidence, including medical records or police reports, to presume him dead under Manitoba’s Presumption of Death and Declaration of Absence Act.

“I have proof that he’s been missing, we’ve been trying to find him and he may never be found, but who knows? So, I just can’t go on like this forever,” Moberg told CBC.

After months of back-and-forth communication with the federal department on her case, Moberg was encouraged to submit an application on Jan. 9, despite staff knowing she didn’t have the required documentation, she said.

Moberg received a letter from the department dated Feb. 6, which officially denied her access to a portion of her husband’s CPP, which amounts to approximately $700 per month.

“While we empathize with your situation and its complexities, we are governed by legislation and regulations in the processing of all benefit applications … As we have shared with you previously, we cannot approve your application at this time without proof of death,” the letter of refusal said.

Moberg said she immediately submitted an application to appeal the decision so no one could say she didn’t try.

A man stands in a field. — The wife of Earl Moberg, who’s been missing for more than a year, has been denied the Canada Pension Plan survivor’s benefit because she can’t prove he’s dead, but now she’s taking legal steps to help find closure. (Submitted by Britt Moberg)

Moberg was initially hesitant to get an estate lawyer after one in Winnipeg estimated the legal fees could cost up to $5,000, but her alternative was to wait seven years before Earl could be presumed dead in court.

In that case, the federal department would only provide 12 months of retroactive payments from the date the application was received, which means she would lose out on six years of pay from the survivor’s benefit, according to a statement from Employment and Social Development Canada.

“This requirement helps protect applicants by preventing situations where such individuals are required to repay months, or even years, of survivor’s pension because a missing or lost contributor is later found. It also ensures program integrity and protects the contributory plan against the potential of fraudulent or erroneous claims,” the statement said.

Morberg has since spoken to multiple estate lawyers who’ve advised her to wait until late summer or early fall to seek a presumption of death as the two-year mark of his disappearance would be approaching at that time.

“We’ve accepted the fact that he is not coming back and I think we’re planning a little family memorial this summer and some of the family is coming in and we’ll have a little family service,” she said.

Moberg isn’t alone in her continued fight to get a portion of Earl’s pension.

Her confidant, Carole Zoerb, isn’t a stranger to the feeling of being refused the survivor’s benefit.

Zoerb, who lives in Winnipeg, said her ex-husband was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease and died in March 2015. Three years later, she got a letter from her workplace requesting proof of his death, which she sent in again and promptly received information regarding the benefit, she said.

She applied, but was later denied because the couple did not do a credit pension split at the time of their divorce because he was considered a vulnerable person by the court, Zoerb said. She appealed the federal department’s decision, which was denied again in November 2019.

Losing out on the benefit “didn’t harm me personally, financially and the reason I applied was just [out of] curiosity,” she said.

Applicants are ineligible for the survivor’s benefit if they aren’t legally married or a common-law spouse to the deceased CPP contributor, according to the federal department’s website. Separated legal spouses are now ineligible for the benefit if they had a credit pension split in January 2025 or later.

Zoerb wanted to find out whether the department would provide her with the contributions she and her husband gave to CPP during their marriage and the reasons behind why they couldn’t do a credit split, but they had no authority, she said.

This compelled her to investigate similar cases like hers online and begin helping those struggling to access the benefits, like Moberg.

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Wife of missing man forced to seek lawyer in battle for survivors benefits after government denial

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