Deputy Ombudsman's Message
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I am pleased to share volume two of
Focused on Fairness
with you. The Office of the Veterans Ombudsman’s (OVO) new quarterly newsletter is a great source of information about the office’s activities and a means for us to stay connected with you.
As we continue to weather the realities that COVID-19 has brought to all our lives, our office hopes that you will continue to adapt, stay safe, and can reach out for supports if and when needed.
Before everyone’s thoughts turn to summer, I’d like to highlight a few recent OVO developments since our
first issue in April
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For those of you I have yet to meet, I am Sharon Squire, Deputy Ombudsman. Having served in this capacity since 2014, one of my key roles is leading the OVO’s operations. With Ombudsman Craig Dalton’s departure in May, I now also play a stewardship role for the office until the Government of Canada selects and appoints a new Veterans Ombudsman. Together with the OVO team, I am steering a ship that stays an ambitious course.
The OVO continues moving Veterans’ complaints forward and advancing key issues of unfairness. The OVO escalated four Veteran’s cases to the Minister’s office. Also five systemic investigations are in progress – please read further on for more details. In May, we published a systemic investigative report,
Financial Compensation for Canadian Veterans – A Comparative Analysis of Benefits Regimes
,
which compares how Veterans in differing situations would fare under each of Canada’s three benefit regimes concerning their lifetime financial compensation. The OVO also adopted a new
fairness model
and delivered sessions to improve VAC’s understanding of how we apply fairness to our investigations.
And all of this work continues seamlessly as employees work remotely from their homes. The OVO team has stepped up in these extraordinary times to ensure Veterans’ questions are addressed, complaints are thoroughly investigated, systemic unfairness is identified and recommendations are brought forward to VAC.
The OVO wishes Craig Dalton well in his new position. Working closely with Craig inspired our team. He tirelessly championed fairness for Veterans and their families and sought to move a more holistic system forward that put Veterans’ and their families’ needs first. We expect the
job poster
to fill this position will be posted shortly and are hopeful a new Ombudsman will be announced sometime in the fall.
I encourage you to
reach out
to our office with your questions, concerns, and comments.
On behalf of myself and our team, I wish you an excellent summer and hope that you will continue to stay safe.
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OVO Helps Veteran Increase Monthly
Income Replacement Benefit Payment
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After spending almost three years trying to get Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC) to correct her Income Replacement Benefit (IRB) payments, a Reserve Force Veteran decided to reach out. Believing that she was receiving less than she was entitled to, the Veteran hoped that the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman (OVO) could help.
The IRB is a monthly payment providing income support to Veterans experiencing service-related barriers to re-establishment. If eligible for the IRB, VAC states that Veterans will receive 90% of their salary upon release from the Canadian Armed Forces.
The Reserve Force Veteran’s monthly payments were much less than she had anticipated. According to the VAC decision letter her IRB had been calculated in accordance with the regulations, using the salary from a previous, lower rank she had held during her service.
The Veteran believed that VAC was incorrectly interpreting and applying the regulations. In hopes of correcting the suspected mistake, she had appealed the decision twice; however, the decision was upheld each time, her questions went unanswered, and the reasoning behind the unfavourable decisions remained unclear.
“By the time I contacted the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman I felt very frustrated with the entire VAC process and still wasn’t clear as to how they were making the decision as the explanations given to me were still unclear,” explains the Veteran.
“It was an extremely stressful process as I felt I was not being taken seriously with my inquiries. This process not only aggravated my injuries, but continually elevated them, making any hope for a better quality of life seemingly impossible.”
The OVO assessed her case and got to the bottom of the problem. Although the Reserve Force Veteran had multiple conditions approved for rehabilitation, VAC used only one condition (associated with an earlier period of service 20 years prior) to calculate her IRB. If the other conditions associated with her pre-release salary were taken into account, the IRB would have been much higher.
The OVO presented the case to VAC and subsequently the department agreed that an error might have occurred. VAC then initiated an internal review to examine the calculation on the basis of the possible error. The review overturned the decision, and VAC recalculated the Reserve Force Veteran’s IRB using her pre-release salary. She also received a lump sum retroactive payment— going back to when her IRB was first payable. As a result of the OVO’s intervention, she received a lump sum of more than $30,000 and her monthly IRB payment increased by approximately $1,000.
“It was an enormous relief when I received the overturned decision. I actually sat down and cried with relief and felt I could finally focus on my health and start eliminating the stressors in my life caused by this financial uncertainty about my future.
”
This complaint, and others like it, led the OVO to launch a
micro investigation
into how IRB is calculated for Reserve Force Veterans. The investigation determined that the IRB for some Reserve Force Veterans is calculated using a lower salary than the salary on release. Unlike those who release from the Regular Force, in accordance with VAC regulations, the salary used to calculate the IRB for those who release from the Reserve Force, is the salary at the end of the class of service in which an event occurred that led to the IRB-approved health problem. If the Veteran was injured as a result of an event that occurred during a different class of service than the class on release, and if the Veteran had subsequently progressed to a higher rank than the one held when the event occurred, the salary used to calculate the IRB may be lower than the salary on release.
To ensure Reserve Force Veterans do not face unfair outcomes related to their IRB calculation, the OVO recommended that Government revise regulations and apply a Reservist lens when developing policy.
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In May, the Ombudsman released an
investigative report
which compared the compensation Canadian Veterans would receive under three regimes: the
Pension Act
, the New Veterans Charter/
Veterans Well-being Act
, and Pension for Life. It analyzed nine scenarios to show the lifetime financial benefits that the Veteran would receive in each instance. The OVO found that no one regime is the most financially generous in all scenarios. Instead, our analysis found that each individual’s situation is unique and that the severity of the Veteran’s disability is the main determinant of lifetime compensation. However, even when Veterans have the same disability severity and the same rank and age on release, the lifetime financial compensation can still differ, depending on which regime the application was made under. This difference results in inequitable treatment for some Veterans. As we pointed out in our report, these inequities and the complexities that lead to them are due to Government never identifying the financial benefit outcomes it wishes to achieve for ill and injured Veterans.
Specific findings were:
- Most Veterans with lower disability assessments receive more under the Pension Act;
- Some of the most seriously ill and injured Veterans receive less under Pension for Life than they would have under the New Veterans Charter/Veterans Well-being Act; and
- Pension for Life is more generous when a Veteran with a Diminished Earning Capacity designation releases early in their career.
The investigation resulted in four recommendations to Government:
1. Clearly identify the financial outcomes Canada seeks to provide for its ill and injured Veterans;
2. Harmonize existing financial compensation frameworks to meet these outcomes;
3. Ensure that no Veteran with a Diminished Earning Capacity designation is disadvantaged due to the regime benefits were applied under; and,
4. Compensate Veterans for lost career progression as if the Veteran had served a full military career.
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The OVO also recently completed an investigation based on a complaint from a Veteran about not being advised to apply, when potentially eligible, for the Earnings Loss Benefit (ELB) under the under the New Veterans Charter. Using a scenario approach, we found that this advice shortcoming ultimately led to inequitable financial impacts with respect to the Supplementary Retirement Benefit (SRB), which hinges on ELB eligibility.
As so often happens, our investigation into the Veteran’s complaint pointed to a possible systemic issue relating to the way Veterans were counselled (or not counselled) regarding ELB/SRB eligibility at the time it was introduced in 2006. This issue is not about ensuring Veterans are financially secure, but rather a case of equity, where a Veteran should not be disadvantaged in terms of an SRB payout due to a lack of knowledge or understanding about VAC programs.
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Mental Health Supports for Families
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In January 2020, VAC introduced a revised interpretation of its policy around family members’ access to mental health services. The new Guideline for Funding Mental Health Services Involving Veterans’ Family Member(s) resulted in a number of complaints to our office.
Prior to the change, family members could access mental health treatment if it was considered part of the Veteran’s treatment or rehabilitation plan - in other words, if it would help the Veteran achieve their own goals. The tighter interpretation limited access to only family/couples counselling and psycho-education because these contributed to the Veteran’s treatment or rehabilitation plan. Therefore, family members needing mental health treatment for conditions related to a spouse or parent’s military service would either need to pay for it themselves if private health insurance did not fully cover it, struggle to obtain timely treatment at a provincial facility or do without.
The January 2020 restrictive guideline reinforced the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman’s (OVO) 2016 recommendation that VAC provide funding for mental health treatment for family members in their own right and not based solely on the needs of the Veteran. For this reason, in February 2020, the OVO urgently requested that the revised January 2020 guideline be reversed. At the same time, OVO initiated an investigation into the requirement for access to mental health treatment benefits for families in their own right, as a result of the unique and challenging conditions of military service.
As of May 6, 2020, the guideline (January 2020) was revised, but not reversed, by VAC. The OVO holds fast that VAC’s guideline continues to be too narrow and that families should receive access to the mental health supports they need. VAC’s current interpretation of the guideline still re-enforces that: the treatment has to have a positive impact on the Veterans’ mental health; be a part of the Veterans treatment or rehabilitation plan; the need for family access to the services must be established by the professional treating the Veteran; and, family members can only access one health professional or service at a time. Further, it limits all mental health services to 25 sessions in a one-year period.
The number of family members approaching our office about their inability to access mental health services points to a systemic issue which prevents family members from getting the treatment they need for condition’s related to the Veteran’s service. It has been the Office of the Veterans Ombudsman’s position that when a family member suffers from a mental health illness or injury arising from the unique conditions and challenges of military service, they should have access to mental health treatment in their own right, independent of the Veterans’ treatment or rehabilitation plan and regardless of whether the Veteran is engaged in treatment or not.
The OVO will publish an investigation in the fall of 2020
and will review the potential service-related mental health needs of family members, the mental health supports currently available for family members by the Government of Canada, and the gaps and barriers preventing them from accessing needed treatment. It will also provide the government with recommendations with respect to expanding eligibility so that family members can access mental health treatment in their own right.
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Follow Up: Income Replacement Benefit Report
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In the
April edition
of this newsletter, we shared the results of a systemic investigation regarding
the Income Replacement Benefits (IRB) for Reserve Force Veterans.
The investigation was based on a complaint received from a Reserve Force Veteran. In a nutshell, the OVO found cases where VAC used a salary lower than the Reserve Force Veteran’s pre-release salary when calculating IRB payments. This led to, in this particular case, the complainant receiving a lower than expected IRB payment.
In the investigative report, The OVO made two recommendations to VAC. The first was to amend the
Veterans Well-being Regulations
to ensure that Income Replacement Benefits are fairly calculated for Veterans releasing from any class of Reserve Force service. The second was to correct any unintentional systemic bias by applying a Reservist lens in policy development.
Minister Lawrence MacAulay responded, stating that he has asked VAC to review the IRB policy to ensure it is clear and has directed staff to make sure that the IRB is implemented as intended. He also stated that he is committed to taking the unique needs of Reserve Force Veterans into consideration in policy development in the future.
The OVO appreciates that the Minister agrees with the intent of both our recommendations, however we believe that clarifying the implementation guidelines falls short. The OVO maintains that the current IRB regulations should be changed to ensure the fair treatment of all Veterans.
As an ombudsman’s office, we cannot compel VAC to enact our recommendations, however we will continue to advocate for a regulation change on this issue.
If you or a Veteran you know thinks their IRB calculation may have been unfair, we strongly encourage you to contact our office to a
submit a complaint.
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What is Fair? OVO’s Model Explained
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The OVO’s approach to assessing fairness is based on a model we call the Fairness Triangle. The assessment of fairness breaks down into three components: Fair Process, Fair Outcome and Fair Treatment.
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Fair Treatment
refers to how the Veteran or family member was treated.
Fair treatment includes VAC providing clear, easy-to-understand information, respecting privacy rights and treating Veterans with courtesy, dignity and respect.
Fair Outcome
refers to what was decided. In a fair outcome, decisions are based on relevant information and are made in accordance with applicable laws, regulations and rules that are fair. Decisions should result in equitable outcomes and not be unduly oppressive. Similarly situated individuals should expect similar outcomes.
Each side of the fairness triangle can overlap with another; sometimes an unfair process can lead to unfair treatment or unfair outcome. Other times, each side is separated, and we may find an unfair procedure where the Veteran was treated fairly and the outcome was fair, for example.
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The Online Complaint Form
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The OVO appreciates receiving complaints from Veterans and their family members. Complaints help draw our attention to both individual or systemic issues relating to VAC benefits, programs, and services.
OVO services can also be accessed by phone (
1-877-330-4343)
,
email
,
mail
,
and TTY (
1-833-978-1639)
.
Ready to make a complaint right away? We strongly encourage using the
online complaint form
to help our office understand the issue faster and to equip us to start investigation complaints sooner. This way, we are also up to speed and have already considered the best course of action by the time we phone you to discuss your case.
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What We Do: Responding to our Qs and As
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Q.
Does the Ombudsman advocate for Veterans?
A.
The Veterans Ombudsman is an impartial officer and is not a representative of the complainant. The OVO will review and investigate complaints from clients, looking for instances of unfair process, unfair treatment and unfair outcomes, as well as systemic issues of unfairness, in an objective manner and without bias. They act only to identify and address fairness concerns. When there is an apparent unfairness, the OVO will advocate for the resolution of the complaint and make recommendations to VAC to improve administration programs and services for Veterans and their families.
Q. Can the Ombudsman change the outcome of my decision?
A.
The Veterans Ombudsman does not have the capability to reverse decisions, change outcomes or amend laws, regulations, rules and policies. However, The OVO can identify issues of unfairness, make recommendations for resolution and engage with VAC’s review process. The Veterans Ombudsman can only recommend, not compel Veterans Affairs Canada to act.
Q. What happens after I submit a complaint to the OVO?
A.
Once a complaint is received, and the client’s consent to access the file is provided, the complaint is reviewed by an OVO Intake officer. The Intake Officer will gather all necessary information to assess the complaint and then contact the Veteran. If the complaint falls outside the OVO mandate, the intake officer will provide direction and next steps to the client. If the complaint is within the OVO mandate, the intake officer will assign the file to an OVO Issues Analyst for further investigation into unfairness.
If an issue of unfairness is discovered, The OVO will work with VAC to resolve the complaint. If the complaint is not resolved at the VAC working level, an investigative report is prepared for the OVO Senior Management team. The OVO Senior Management team conducts a challenge exercise and determines whether there are sufficient grounds to elevate the case to VAC’s Deputy Minister and perhaps, depending on the outcome, to the Minister.
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The COVID-19 pandemic has brought challenging times, affecting Canadians on many different levels. For many, this has been a particularly stressful period. The silver lining is that not far behind the challenges you can always find examples of people helping each other out. The OVO was inspired by the emerging stories of Veterans helping others during the pandemic and launched a #findthehelpers social media campaign. Our hope is to help spread positive news to your feeds and honour the selfless deeds of Veterans in their communities.
We’ve received an overwhelmingly positive reaction so far. Like us, people across Canada are truly inspired by the way Veterans are stepping up and providing leadership during these stressful and challenging times.
Thank you to all the helpers. Keeping following our social media channels to read more.
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The OVO Gets Social
Check out our most popular social media posts this quarter:
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Silver Cross Mothers Pay Tribute in Bi-annual Clean-up of
Highway of Heroes
May 10, 2020
10,559
people reached
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OVO Recommends VAC Process Deceased Veterans’ Applications Regardless of Family Relationships
May 25, 2020
10,085
people reached
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Highlight on 2019 Veterans Ombudsman Commendations Recipients
May 21, 2020
7,589 people reached
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In case you missed it, find top news stories about our office here:
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By Lee Berthiaume,
The Canadian Press
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by Lee Berthiaume,
The Canadian Press
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By
Murray Brewster
, CBC News
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The OVO initiated four additional investigations for the upcoming year: The Department of Veterans Affairs’ Review and Appeal System; Mental Health Treatment Benefits for Family Members; Caregiver Recognition Benefit; and Female Veterans access to the Veterans Independence Program. Next, we are set to publish results from the Spouses Supporting Transition focus group and literature review.
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REMINDER: July 1 Deadline
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A new and improved website design
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We’ve compiled a list of resources we thought might be helpful for Veterans and their families, and those who support them:
Crisis Response
·
Hope for Wellness
(mental health counselling and crisis intervention for Indigenous, First Nations and Inuit peoples)
Navigating VAC
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Connect with us Social Media
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