Current veterans disability claims could take until 2022 to process

Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) analysts say that the department is handling a backlog of disability claims which could take until 2022 to process, Blacklocks Reporter has reported.

Testifying before the Commons Veterans Affairs Committee, Steven Harris, assistant deputy minister of service delivery, was asked by Conservative MP Colin Carrie for the "average processing time" which veterans will have to face.

“There are a variety of times,” Harris replied. He further confirmed that the process could take years due to an ongoing backlog in the system.

A Parliamentary Budget Office report from September showed that the number of unprocessed claims has increased nearly 150 percent since 2017, rising from 20,693 claims to 49,216. According to VAC analysts, the backlog of disability claims is expected to be 40,000 by 2022, and could have been significantly higher if the government had not allocated more funding to the program.

“We foresee that the backlog will be approximately 40,000 applications by the end of fiscal year 2021–22. Our projections show that, without these additional resources, the number of pending applications for disability benefits would have reached approximately 140,000 by that time” the report stated.

VAC has been budgeted by the cabinet an extra $234.8 million since 2018. In June of 2020, another $192 million was budgeted towards the program, allowing the department "to retain 160 temporary employees already working for VAC, and to hire an additional 300 temporary employees"

The report said that given another $103 million in funding over the next four years, "the backlog would be eliminated in the first quarter of 2023." The report also said it would be possible to eliminate the backlog within 12 months. "The cost associated with this scenario is $33 million for 2020–21 and a total of $126 million from now until the end of fiscal year 2024–25," the report claimed.

VAC Deputy Minister General Walter Natynczyk concurred with the report, saying "we need to have additional staff horsepower to assist us here.” Natynczyk further stated that the additionally hires were about "cutting bureaucracy" and “delegating authority to the lowest level to make decisions.”

“We want to actually move forward to support, as we say in veterans’ circles, our battle buddies, and our wing men and women and our naval colleagues because they have served,” Natynczyk said.