Backlog of vets awaits disability benefits

O T TAWA • The number of veterans waiting to find out whether they qualify for disability benefits has continued to grow, and despite repeated promises to fix the mess, there are fears the turmoil will only worsen.

New figures from Veterans Affairs Canada show nearly 40,000 veterans were waiting at the end of November to hear whether their applications for financial assistance would be approved — 11,000 more than the previous year.

And more than one-third of the total had been in the queue longer than 16 weeks, also an increase.

That is despite the Trudeau government’s having moved to hire more frontline staff and committing $42 million over two years in last year’s budget to clear up the backlog, which has been a source of concern for years.

Revelations about the size of the backlog nonetheless have prompted fresh shock and concern among veterans’ advocates.

And there are fears that the situation will only get worse as Veterans Affairs begins to roll out a new pension plan for disabled veterans next month, which will see staff using a new computer system to process a new package of benefits.

“I’m surprised it’s grown that much,” said Jim Lowther, president of VETS Canada, which supports homeless veterans in communities across the country, adding when it comes to the new pension plan: “No one really knows how it going to unfold.”