Question Period Note: 2023-24 SERVICE STANDARD RESULTS

• Service standards are part of our commitment to providing quality services to Veterans, former RCMP members, CAF members, and their families.
• Service standards tell Veterans how long they can expect for a service to be provided or for a decision to be made under normal operating circumstances.
• In fiscal year 2023-24, VAC met or exceeded 18 (72%) of its 25 published service standards.
• VAC is aware that current processing times for disability benefits are still unacceptable and reducing them remains a top priority. The Department has made a lot of progress, but there is more work to do.
• VAC is transparent on the progress of reducing processing times for disability benefits applications by publishing these results.
• 2023-24 Service Standards Results were externally published on January 30, 2025.

Veterans Affairs Canada has a set of service standards to measure and communicate the level of service we provide to our clients and the expected timelines relating to our programs and benefits. The results are published both on GC InfoBase - VAC Service Standards and on VAC’s external website Service standards - Veterans Affairs Canada.
A reminder that Service Standards are the external facing commitments that VAC makes to Veterans and the Canadian Public. They are different than the internal facing performance metrics that we use to monitor the performance of our programs.
Part of our ongoing commitment to Veterans and others we serve is to develop and maintain accurate service standards that are based on client feedback, representative of our actual performance, and comply with Treasury Board’s Policy on Service and Digital. One of the requirements of this new policy, which took effect on April 1, 2020, is for departments to ensure that services have comprehensive and transparent client-centric standards, related targets, and performance information for all service delivery channels in use. Work is underway in the Department to implement this and other requirements.
The Department routinely reviews its service standards to ensure they are useful to Veterans and other clients. With this, Veteran feedback, and the evolution of Veterans Affairs Canada programs and benefits in mind, we expect a number of service standards will be revised and new ones will be added over time.
Processing Times:
• For 2023-2024, the average turnaround time for first applications was 20.2 weeks, down from an average turnaround time of 28.1 weeks in 2022-2023 and 39.7 weeks in 2021-2022.
• Between 2015–2016 and 2023-2024, VAC experienced a 78% increase in disability benefits applications, which impacted our ability to meet our service standard. However, with the help of additional temporary resources extended until March 2026, we made significant progress: since 2019-2020, we’ve more than doubled our performance for first-time applications (from 23% to 69% in 2023-2024) .
• Applications are fast-tracked for those who are medically at risk (e.g., palliative, advanced age, etc.) or who have an immediate, unmet health need related to their claimed condition.

QUICK FACTS & FIGURES
• Year-end results for 2023-2024 show that, of the 25 service standards measured, VAC met or exceeded 18 targets, an increase from the 17 targets met during the previous fiscal year.
Disability Benefits:
• Our ability to meet our 16 week service standard is impacted by a number of factors, including an increasing number of applications for disability benefits.
• Between 2015-2016 and 2023-2024, VAC saw a 78% increase in the number of disability benefits applications, which impacted our ability to meet our service standard.
• Since 2019-2020, we’ve more than doubled our performance for first applications (from 23% to 69% in 2023-2024).
Disability Benefits Processing Times:
• In the 2023-2024 fiscal year, the Department made significant strides in reducing processing times. Since the spring of 2020 to the end of 2023-2024 fiscal year, we reduced the backlog by 75%.
• For 2023-2024 the average turnaround time for first applications was 20.2 weeks, down from an average turnaround time of 28.1 weeks in 2022-2023 and 39.7 weeks in 2021-2022.
• Between 2015-2016 and 2023-2024, Veterans Affairs Canada saw a 78% increase in the number of disability benefit applications. Despite this increase, we made significant progress in meeting the disability benefits service standard in 2023-2024, with 69% of first applications processed within the standard timeframe (16 weeks).
Additionally:
• VAC hired more employees to process disability benefits applications, who were extended to March 2026 with an investment of $139.6 million announced in February 2022.
• To further improve processing times, the Government announced additional funding of $164.4 million on 3 November 2023. A portion of this funding will help VAC retain temporary trained staff dedicated to processing disability benefits applications for an additional two years, until March 2026. We will continue to strive to achieve our disability benefits service standards.