Veterans Affairs alleges some ex-soldiers exaggerating their injuries
Lee Berthiaume
Ottawa Citizen
01 Jan 2015
The Veterans Affairs department says some veterans are exaggerating their injuries to continue receiving financial benefits from the government and to avoid joining the work force.
The explosive allegation is contained in a recent internal report on a Veterans Affairs rehabilitation program designed to help injured ex-soldiers transition to civilian life, which found thousands of veterans are staying in the program much longer than anticipated — or not finishing it at all.
The claim is sure to spark fresh anger among veterans groups and opposition critics who have previously complained about an insurance company attitude when it comes to Veterans Affairs Canada’s treatment of veterans.
But Veterans Affairs Minister Julian Fantino’s office, asked about the report, said this week the government will continue to support injured veterans as long as they require assistance.
“Our government makes no apologies for ensuring that veterans receive urgent rehabilitation care when they need it, and that they receive this support for as long as they and their medical practitioner deem appropriate,” Fantino spokeswoman Ashlee Smith said in an email.
NDP veterans affairs critic Peter Stoffer was critical of the department’s emphasis on potential abuse.
“In my experience, the vast majority of veterans don’t want to be sick. They would love to be working full time. I think they’re trying to shift the blame for the problems they have in their own program.”
Nearly 1,000 injured veterans enrolled in the rehabilitation program when it was created in 2006, according to the report. Demand was expected to drop off over the following years, but more than 5,800 vets were enrolled in the rehab program in March 2013, and 9,100 are expected by 2018.
In a background briefing with the Citizen this week, a Veterans Affairs official attributed the growth to pent-up demand among veterans who had served after the Korean War. But the report also shows that veterans, once they are in the program, aren’t leaving.
More than 2,800 of the 5,800 veterans in the program at the end of March 2013 had been participating longer than originally expected, the report found. In fact, of the nearly 1,000 who originally joined in 2006, nearly one-third were still enrolled.
Reviewers who prepared the report acknowledged some problems with the program. They found weaknesses in determining veterans’ needs, including delays in consultations with health care professionals. And only 28 per cent of veterans who sought help finding a job actually landed a career they wanted.
They also found the department had little information about how the program was actually functioning because it relied almost exclusively on voluntary surveys filled out by participants. This, they suggested, opened it up to abuse.
“Research indicates respondents may inflate the incidence and severity of health problems and disability in order to rationalize labour force non-participation and/or receipt of disability benefits,” the report said.
Meanwhile, only 22 per cent of the 5,800 injured vets in the program were taking advantage of services to help them find a civilian job. Part of this was because about about 32 per cent were receiving similar assistance from National Defence.
But a full 30 per cent were deemed currently unsuitable for such help or simply had no interest. The remaining 16 per cent were veterans determined to be too ill or injured to find gainful employment. That number has tripled since 2011 — which reviewers noted coincided with a hike in cash benefits for injured ex-soldiers.
The reviewers concluded that veterans were not very successful in meeting their employment goals. Furthermore, the financial benefits available to injured veterans “may be deterring veterans from actively participating in the vocational aspects of the program and the labour force.”
Veterans Affairs Canada spokeswoman Kate Murphy said the department “is working to develop new data collection tools and methodologies for measuring veteran outcomes.”
Stoffer acknowledged that in any group of people, there will be those who abuse the system. But he said veterans are in close contact with health professionals, and he accused the department of “finding excuses and blaming the victims rather than fixing the system.”
