Program Profile
The Veterans Emergency Fund (VEF) was established on April 1, 2018 to provide financial support to Veterans, their families, or their survivors whose well-being is at risk due to an urgent and unexpected situation. The VEF provides eligible recipients with up to $2,500 per year in tax-free social assistance payments for necessities such as food, clothing, shelter, medical care/expenses (not otherwise covered by other programs or insurance), or expenses required to maintain safety and shelter. The VEF was implemented with approved funding for three fiscal years (2018-19 to 2020-21).
Evaluation Purpose and Background
To access ongoing funding for the VEF beyond 2020-21, the Minister of Veterans Affairs was required to return to Central Agencies with information on: the need for the program and its level of ongoing funding; the performance, usage, and results of the program over the first three years; and strengthened governance based on the experience over the first three years of the program. In consideration of risk and need, it was determined that the VEF would benefit from an evaluation.
The Evaluation of the Veterans Emergency Fund was conducted between February 2020 and October 2020 and primarily focussed on the time period of April 1, 2018 to August 30, 2020. The evaluation was conducted in accordance with Treasury Board of Canada’s Policy on Results.
Findings
There is a continued need for the VEF and the program aligns with Government of Canada goals and priorities. Demand for the VEF has exceeded the funding level of $1,000,000 in each of its first two years of operation and is on pace to exceed the limit in year three. The program is generally meeting Veteran’s immediate needs, but longer term needs can require additional supports. The VEF can act as a bridge until additional supports are put in place, as evidenced by the program’s performance during the Covid-19 pandemic (demand for the program spiked in April 2020, approximately one month into federal and provincial restrictions implemented to curb the threat of Covid-19).
The program area has demonstrated a commitment to program governance. An ongoing quality assurance function has been implemented for the program, weekly performance and monthly performance reports are being generated, and efforts are being made to address questions that arise from field staff. During the current Covid-19 pandemic, an interim business process was implemented to allow decision makers more flexibility when approving requests for funding. The evaluation finds staff are generally exercising their new authority where appropriate and are requesting supporting documentation when necessary. Staff are also referring Veterans to additional supports where appropriate.
Though the standard turnaround time for making payment on a VEF application is generally being met, the VEF program is administratively burdensome for frontline staff due to the use of CSDN decision dockets to process applications. Of particular concern, 43% of frontline staff surveyed indicated it takes four or more hours to process a VEF decision. Many decision makers (especially newer staff members) have little experience with developing decisions dockets in CSDN and must follow the written instructions each time (system limitations have required the development of a 23 page business process containing dozens of steps). As VEF applications are comparatively rare, it is difficult to build expertise in the system. The evaluation finds that the administrative burden caused by the VEF can detract from staff’s ability to assist other clients.
In addition, the use of CSDN decision dockets to document VEF decisions limits the ability to easily obtain accurate information about VEF clients. All family members are linked to a Veteran’s file through the decision docket, meaning demographic information retrieved from the system is for the Veteran, not necessarily whomever applied for the fund. The system does not allow for easy retrieval of the data required to support program management, nor does it collect the information necessary for complete GBA+ analysis.
Given the administrative steps required to process a VEF claim in its current system and difficulties retrieving data from CSDN, the evaluation makes the following recommendations:
Recommendation #1
It is recommended that the Director General, Service Delivery and Program Management implement measures to reduce the administrative burden on decision makers by exploring system changes to simplify the VEF process.
Recommendation #2
It is recommended that the Director General, Service Delivery and Program Management implement system changes to improve the capture of program performance data and to better capture GBA+ data/program recipient demographic data.