When it came into force in 2006 the New Veterans Charter (NVC) was introduced as a living document, a work in progress that would be continually adapted to the changing needs of veterans. But promised updates have not occurred, and changes are now urgently needed, say the Legion’s Dominion Command Service Bureau and the Veterans Ombudsman.

“Gaps are evident in the areas of financial benefits, rehabilitation and case management, and in the care of families,” Dominion Command Service Bureau Director Pierre Allard told the Senate Subcommittee on Veterans Affairs in October. “The language now used by Veterans Affairs Canada could suggest that a needs-based approach has been adopted,” said Allard. “The reality is that very complex eligibility criteria grids are still in place.” VAC has not redesigned long-term care, Veterans Independence Program or other treatment and benefits programs, which modern veterans, for the most part, are ineligible. “A living charter has to be more than words,” said Allard.

Of particular note is the creation of “two classes of modern disabled soldiers, most of whom are still serving in the Canadian Forces,” said Allard. Resolving problems in treatment of wounded soldiers has resulted in CF retaining soldiers longer before they’re medically released. Thus, soldiers wounded before 2006 on disability pensions, work side-by-side with those wounded after 2006, who receive disability awards. “Frustration is growing to a boiling point as they are comparing the financial benefits in both programs,” said Allard.

The focus of the New Veterans Charter is wellness, with programs designed to help disabled veterans make a smooth transition to civilian life. It offers one-on-one case management, rehabilitation services, financial benefits, group health insurance, job placement assistance and a lump sum disability award and other allowances as well as support to families.

Among the NVC’s financial benefits are earning loss benefits and a lump sum disability award. These replace monthly Pension Act disability pensions.

Under the NVC, pain and suffering is compensated through the tax-free disability award. The award is determined by the severity of injury, with a maximum in 2009 of $257,364. The NVC’s earnings loss benefits are meant to ease transition to civilian life by ensuring the income of injured or disabled CF veterans in rehabilitation or vocational assistance programs does not fall below 75 per cent of their gross pre-release military salary for a minimum of two years. For the severely disabled unable to return to work, these benefits can continue to age 65. Lump sum disability awards are not considered as income in determining earnings loss or SISIP benefits.

“VAC has not lived up to its 2006 commitment to review lump sum awards versus disability pensions within two years,” said Allard, instead wanting to delay evaluation until 2011-12.

As a member of the New Veterans Charter Advisory Group, Allard is worried that there could be delays in moving on the group’s recommendations. Yet the situation is urgent. “It is now more evident that it is unfair to ask a family of four to survive on 75 per cent of a private’s salary for two years while a private is going through rehabilitation—75 per cent of a salary that is taxable, by the way.”

Such examples of lack of timely action “undermine the sincerity of the chorus of loyalty to our veterans,” Veterans Ombudsman Pat Stogran told the committee. “The troubleshooting process must be comprehensive, and meaningful. Changes also must be made in a timely fashion. The review should be transparent.”  Later he said, “my concern is that it will get caught up in bureaucracy now and we will look at a piecemeal approach over the next 15 years to fix it.”

Lump sum payments came under particular criticism before the committee.  “Financially, a veteran is highly disadvantaged by the lump sum payment,” said Stogran, although there are some circumstances where it is beneficial. There’s nothing to prevent a recipient from blowing the money, further disadvantaging and stressing their dependants. Veterans wounded while on deployment sometimes “come back with drug and alcohol dependences and gambling dependencies,” he said.

“Some people will make bad choices,” added Allard. “But when you are receiving a non-taxable disability pension every month, chances are that that income will continue.  If you take the lump sum and you blow it, you’ve blown it, end of story.” Sometimes veterans use the lump sum payment to make their homes accessible following loss of a limb or other disability, “and then the lump sum is gone.”

Officials from VAC, CF and the Department of National Defence spoke to some of these issues in two subsequent appearances before the committee. The operations plan to 2015 calls for modernizing service delivery, technology, outreach and communications, said VAC Assistant Deputy Minister Keith Hillier. Establishment of Integrated Personnel Support Units and a unit that handles Afghanistan veterans and those with serious injuries are examples of modernization. So is improvement in case management that has sped up benefits processing for those with serious injuries, whose applications go through in “about one-third the normal turnaround time for a disability application,” he said.

NVC programs offer opportunity with security, said Hillier. “The system we had in place before provided a monthly annuity, but that is about all it provided…NVC programs give modern-day veterans the tools and opportunities they need to build better lives for themselves and their families after their military career has ended. It offers access to health services, health insurance, rehabilitation, job placement, financial support, lump-sum disability awards and a personalized case management.”

The goal is rehabilitation, said Colonel Gérard Blais of DND casualty support.  Programs for serving CF members are designed to rehabilitate the injured to continue work, perhaps in a new occupation, either inside the CF if they can meet conditions of service, or in civilian life.