Victims’ fund to be overhauled

FEDS TO REVAMP FUND WHERE ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS FAR OUTSTRIP BENEFITS

A federal fund designed to give financial help to parents whose children have been murdered or gone missing has spent more than 14 times as much on administration costs as it has on actual grants.

Internal government documents obtained by The Canadian Press show that the fund has doled out $170,000 in grants as of March 2015, while at the same time spending more than $2.4 million on costs, not including employee benefits.

Add in what was spent through the fund last year, and the total grants hit $223,300, or less than one per cent of what was budgeted over a three-year-plus stretch.

The documents outlining the gaping disparity between administrative costs and grants underline how stringent criteria has made many parents ineligible for the fund.

The continuing shortfall in spending — far below the $10 million that has been budgeted annually since the program’s inception in 2013 — prompted the minister overseeing the program to consider multiple changes that advocates have been requesting for years.

The program set up by the previous Conservative government provides up to $350 a week, for a maximum of 35 weeks, to families whose children have either been killed or gone missing as a result of a probable criminal offence.

The child must be under age 18, the parents must not be working or in receipt of employment insurance benefits, and the grant is only doled out within one year of the offence taking place.

When the previous Conservative government set up the fund in 2013, public servants estimated there would be about 1,200 families who would use the benefit annually, “based on available data and interdepartmental consultations,” read the documents, obtained under the Access to Information Act.

Instead, take-up has been well below estimates: The government has received 52 requests for funding through the program, just over one application per month, and officials have approved 30 for funding.

A government official with knowledge of the file said Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos is considering raising the age criteria, and extending the time frame for payment beyond one year.

The government is also looking at ways to ensure benefits flow to affected, but innocent parents whose spouse or family member is suspected in either the kidnapping or killing of a child, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in order to freely discuss the behind-the-scenes work.