Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) is committed to providing Veterans and their families with quality service in a timely manner. As part of this work, we regularly monitor our service standards, which indicate the time needed for our employees to provide a service or make a decision under normal circumstances. Special circumstances like holidays, natural disasters or emergencies are not calculated as part of the service standards.
| Accessing Services | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| When you... | You can... | Target | 2022-23 Results | Year to date (as of 31 December 2023) |
| Call our National Contact Centre Network (1-866-522-2122) | Expect to be connected with the next available analyst within 2 minutes. | 80% | 73% | 74% |
| Note: After three quarters, the NCCN had a 74% grade of service (GOS) with a 2min 8sec average wait time. This is a 6% increase in GOS from the second quarter and a 34 second average wait time reduction. The labour disruption in April and the maintained high volume of calls during the summer period impacted the overall results. That said, the hiring efforts from the second quarter are paying off as third quarter results (1 October to 31 December) reported that 85% of calls were answered within the service standard. | ||||
| Applying for ProgramsFootnote 1 | ||||
| When you apply for VAC's... | Your decision will be made within... | Target | 2022-23 Results | Year to date (as of 31 December 2023) |
| Disability Pension / Pain and Suffering Compensation | 16 weeks. | 80% | 55% | 68%Footnote 2 |
| Note: VAC has significantly improved the disability benefits service standard result so far in 2023-24. During the first three quarters (61% in quarter one, 71% in quarter two and 73% in quarter three) of the current fiscal year, 68% of Disability Benefits first applications were completed within the service standard compared to 55% in 2022-2023. Since the spring of 2020, we’ve reduced the backlog by 77%. As of 31 December 2023, there were 5,054 applications over the service standard for disability benefit applications.
On 3 November 2023, to ensure VAC continues this momentum, the Government announced additional funding of $164.4 million. Part of this investment will ensure the Department is able to retain existing temporary employees (dedicated to processing disability benefit applications) for an additional two years. As we work from the earliest applications, we expect to see even further improvements to the service standard. |
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| Additional Pain and Suffering Compensation | 16 weeks. | 80% | 45% | 89% |
| Long Term Care Program | 10 weeks. | 80% | 88% | 84% |
| Rehabilitation Program | 2 weeks. | 80% | 52% | 61% |
| Note: Completing eligibility decisions within the service standard continues to be a priority. We are seeing an increase in our performance from 52% in the previous fiscal year to 61% in the current fiscal year. We expect to see an ongoing increase in this percentage in the next fiscal year with the fall 2023 implementation of system updates, new eligibility decision guidelines, and an E-learning module for employees. In addition, a file review is being conducted to ensure Case Managers are receiving complete applications through GCCase in a timely manner. We are also working to resolve data collection issues that have been discovered during the file review. | ||||
| Career Transition Services | 4 weeks. | 80% | 99% | 98% |
| Income Support (Income Replacement Benefit and Canadian Forces Income Support) | 4 weeks. | 80% | 97% | 93% |
| Health Benefits Program (Public Service Health Care Plan) | 4 weeks. | 80% | 100% | 86% |
| War Veterans Allowance Program | 4 weeks. | 80% | 90% | 93% |
| Attendance Allowance | 6 weeks. | 80% | 86% | 89% |
| Reviewing a previous decision | ||||
| Disability Benefits Program - Bureau of Pensions Advocates (BPA) | Target | 2022-23 Results | Year to date (as of 31 December 2023) | |
| You can expect your case to be ready for hearing 21 weeks from the date of your first contact with the Bureau of Pensions Advocates, less any delays in obtaining necessary medical or other supporting information. | 75% | 31% | 38% | |
| Note: 38% of cases completed from April to December 2023 have met our service standard of 21 weeks. This is an improvement over the 36% as of September 2023. For the third quarter we met our service standard in 42% of the cases completed, which represents ongoing improvement. VAC expects these improvements to continue with the additional temporary funding and investment in systems and service processes. | ||||
| All other programs | Target | 2022-23 Results | Year to date (as of 31 December 2023) | |
| If you are dissatisfied with a decision you received for any program other than Disability Benefits, National First and/or Second Level of Appeal will complete a review of that decision within 12 weeks of receiving your written request for review. | 80% | 72% | 68% | |
| Note: VAC continues to see a surge in the number of appeals received (42% increase from 2021-22 to 2022-23), as well as an increase in the number of complex cases. These increases have impacted our ability to complete the appeals within the expected service standard timeframe. To improve results for 2023-2024, VAC will adjust human resources allocated to the review and appeal process to assist with the spike in appeals, enhance training and streamline the workload management approach to ensure that the service standard is achieved. | ||||
| VAC Program Recipients | ||||
| Once you are eligible for VAC’s... | You will... | Target | 2022-23 Results | Year to date (as of 31 December 2023) |
| Disability Benefits Program or War Veterans Allowance Program | Be sent your VAC Health Care Identification Card within 6 weeks of your eligibility. | 100% | 100% | 100% |
| Veterans Independence Program | Have your reimbursement processed within 10 business days of claim receipt by the contractor. | 98% | 100% | 100% |
| Rehabilitation Program | Work with your case manager and develop a plan to best meet your needs within 45 days of your eligible Rehabilitation Program decision. | 80% | 92% | 95% |
| Case Management Veterans | ||||
| Target | 2022-23 Results | Year to date (as of 31 December 2023) | ||
| The ratio of case managed Veterans to case managers will not exceed 25:1 | 25:1 | 30:1 | 31:1Footnote 3 | |
| Note: The Department continues to strive to meet the 25:1 ratio of Veterans to Case Managers to bring it in line with the Government of Canada commitment. There has been an anticipated increase in Veterans requesting case management services. Training was provided in the third quarter with respect to case management practices in an effort to improve the ratio. | ||||
| Applying for Commemoration Programs/Services | ||||
| When you request... | You can expect... | Target | 2022-23 Results | Year to date (as of 31 December 2023) |
| War service medals (first issue) | Your medals to be shipped within 8 weeks. | 90% | 100% | 90% |
| Replacement war service medals | An entitlement decision within 8 weeks. | 90% | 100% | 100% |
| Your medals to be shipped within 4 weeks of receiving paymentFootnote 4. | 90% | 98% | 100% | |
| Commemorative information, products and education material | Your materials to be shipped within 2 weeks. | 90% | 99% | 99.9% |
| When you submit a request related to... | You can expect... | Target | 2022-23 Results | Year to date (as of 31 December 2023) |
| Care and Maintenance of Veterans’ Graves | A response within 5 working days. | 90% | 100% | 100% |
| Required actions to be completed within 12 months of the requestFootnote 5. | 90% | n/a | n/a | |
| Note: VAC is responsible for the care and maintenance of over 250,000 Veteran grave markers. In Budget 2018, the Government of Canada announced an additional investment of $24.4 million over five years to address a backlog of approximately 57,000 urgently needed repairs. The work began in 2018, and as of 31 March 2023, this work is now completed. At the end of the project, 98.5% of the backlog has been addressed, with more than 60,000 additional repairs also completed during the project. Challenges in collecting the information for this service standard were encountered in 2021-22 and 2022-23 due to the volume of repairs and changes in the business processes for the Grave Marker Maintenance Program resulting from the five-year backlog project. As recommended in the 2022 Evaluation of the Funeral and Burial and Cemetery and Grave Marker Maintenance Programs, efforts are underway to plan and implement a new grave marker inspection cycle. The Department is currently reviewing the service standards used for the Grave Marker Maintenance Program. | ||||
| When you apply for... | Your decision will be made within... | Target | 2022-23 Results | Year to date (as of 31 December 2023) |
| Community Engagement funding under the Commemorative Partnership Program (CPP) | 12 weeks of receiving your completed application. | 80% | 100% | 100% |
| Community War Memorial funding under the Commemorative Partnership Program (CPP) | 12 weeks of the posted application deadline. | 80% | 97% | 100% |
| Means-tested funeral and burial benefits | 30 calendar days. | 80% | 98% | 97% |