Question Period Note: OFFICE OF THE AUDITOR GENERAL SPRING REPORT 2022 – PROCESSING DISABILITIY BENEFITS FOR VETERANS

• We welcome the Auditor General’s report and agree with the recommendations. In fact, this audit outlines the very issues we have been working on in the last few years to reduce processing times for our Veterans.
• We are making real, tangible progress, much of which has occurred since the audit ended on September 30, 2021.
• Regarding the backlog, we’ve reduced it by greater than 50% to 10,664 as of May 17th. This is down from a high of over 23,000 from two years ago.
• We know that current processing times for disability benefits are unacceptable, and reducing them remains our top priority.

BACKGROUND - Office of the Auditor General Spring Report 2022 – Processing Disability Benefits for Veterans

• A chapter in the Office of the Auditor General’s spring report, published on 31 May 2022, focusses on actions taken by VAC to reduce the processing times for Veterans to receive disability benefits. The audit period was 1 April 2020 to
30 September 2021.
• The report makes four recommendations:
1) VAC and RCMP should work together to establish a formal costing process and determine the right level of funding needed for processing RCMP applications in a timely manner.
2) VAC should review the end date it uses to calculate processing times to report consistently and accurately on its performance in comparison to its service standard.
3) VAC should improve the quality and organization of its data to better monitor the program and determine the success of efficiency initiatives
4) VAC should work with central government agencies to establish a long-term resourcing plan

VAC’s Action
• VAC agrees with the recommendations and has developed an action plan to address them.
• RCMP formal costing: VAC and the RCMP are working to create better processes for forecasting the financial requirements of VAC administering disability benefits for RCMP clients.
• Service standards We are reviewing our service standards to ensure that they are meaningful for Veterans. For future reporting, we will include the time between our decision and when a payment is made.
• Data weaknesses: We know we need to improve the quality of our data. Work is underway to better track our strategic processing times reduction initiatives and support disability benefits processing.
• Long-term resourcing: We are committed to exploring options for long-term resources to help us make more timely decisions.

Improvements Since the Audit
• In late 2021 and early 2022, we completed an average of 4,900 applications per month, a 40% increase over the average for the previous three fiscal years.
• We have made excellent progress in closing the gap in processing times for women applicants. For the fiscal year 2021-22, our processing times for first applications from males and females were almost identical: 38.1 and 38.8 weeks, respectively (versus an average seven-week gap in the two previous fiscal years).
• We are working to close the gap in processing times for anglophones and francophones. For the fiscal year 2021-22, the averages for first applications were 36.9 and 45.2 weeks, respectively. While this 8-week difference is unacceptable, it is an improvement from the 9-week gap that existed in 2020-21 and the 15-week gap that existed in 2019-20.
• We have made changes in how we work. We also hired additional temporary employees dedicated to this issue, who were recently extended to March 2024 thanks to an investment of $139.6 million announced in February 2022.
• We will continue working towards our strategic direction to address this long-standing issue and regularly report on our performance on our website.

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