Veterans Affairs Committee on March 11th, 2009

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

Well, I'm just looking at some analysis that's been done for us here. It shows that in the United States there are 108 comprehensive home care programs, so I can't be specific in terms of which one. But maybe you can elaborate on the type of home care programs that you do offer veterans and whether or not they apply to the family.

[Leigh Ann Skeens]

Our home care programs would fall under the Veterans Health Administration. Hopefully, Ms. Patterson will include that in her presentation. If not, please feel free to ask her that.

From the benefits side, we do just strictly pay out moneys for veterans who are eligible to receive benefits based on service-related injuries, or who have had wartime service and meet our income requirements.

So we don't...if that makes sense?

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

Sure. I guess—

[Leigh Ann Skeens]

The benefits administration, actually, does not administer home care programs. That would fall under our Veterans Health Administration.

[Judy Foote, Liberal, Random—Burin—St. George's, NL]

Okay, well, I'll ask the question, then.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much.

You may ask a question, Mr. Gaudet.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I have a short, simple question. When you provide loan guarantees, do you often see foreclosures?

[Leigh Ann Skeens]

Part of our loan guarantee program is the loan servicing program, and part of that is foreclosure avoidance. We have a very good foreclosure avoidance rate. So very few of our veterans foreclose—I'm sorry, I don't have the exact percentage for you—or fewer veterans have loan foreclosures than the general population in the United States.

We do a very good job of working with lenders, working with our veterans who have home loans, in developing ways and getting lower interest rates and working out payment plans, so they can stay in their home and can continue to make their payments and are not foreclosed on.

In addition, if the lender is getting ready to foreclose, VA has the ability to take over that mortgage and administer it themselves, which is another avoidance mechanism for the veterans, so they can stay in their home.

[Roger Gaudet, Bloc, Montcalm, QC]

Thank you very much.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thanks once again.

Mr. Lobb.

[Ben Lobb, Conservative, Huron—Bruce, ON]

Thank you. I'm going to ask this question. I don't know whether it falls directly under your jurisdiction, but I noticed on your website that there's an allusion to about 150,000 veterans who are homeless. Do you have any programs or benefits to get those veterans off the street?

[Leigh Ann Skeens]

We have a lot of specific outreach that we do to veterans, and the health administration has some specific programs geared toward homeless veterans and to getting them off the streets. Ms. Patterson can speak more specifically to those.

As far as benefits are concerned, we try to do significant outreach to let these veterans know that they may be eligible for benefits. Once they receive benefits, they are more likely to be able to get back into a home or get some financial stability. So we do consider those hardship cases, and they are worked as one of our priorities on the benefits side.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much.

Madam O'Neill-Gordon.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you.

Is there an appeal process in place for the veterans if they don't agree with a decision made by your department?

[Leigh Ann Skeens]

Yes, Ma'am, there is an appeal process. Once a decision is made, a veteran or a beneficiary has up to a year from the date of the decision notification to come in and file an appeal for an increase in benefits.

[Tilly O'Neill-Gordon, Conservative, Miramichi, NB]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you. You've been very expeditious in answering these questions. It's fantastic.

Since we mentioned that we're trying to give everybody a chance to have at least one question first, I'm going to modify the order a bit to make sure that happens.

Mr. Andrews, do you have a question?

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Yes, I have one quick question.

It's in regard to the disability pension that you award to your veterans. In your slide you talk about it being needs-based. Could you explain a little more how your disability pension works and to whom it's awarded?

[Leigh Ann Skeens]

To be eligible for our disability pension program a veteran has to have 90 days of active duty. One of those days has to be in a war-time period as prescribed by law, and once they meet that threshold they also have to meet an income threshold. Under our current pension income limits, the income of a veteran with no dependants has to be less than $11,830. He can use recurring medical expenses to reduce his amount of countable income to become eligible for a VA pension. We consider those elements as part of the determination.

Such things as social security count against VA pension, so if a veteran is receiving social security or receiving a retirement pension from a job, such as railroad retirement or any other job where they receive regular pension, if they receive more than this $11,830 limit for the year, they won't be eligible for our program.

[Scott Andrews, Liberal, Avalon, NL]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much.

I believe Mr. Clarke does not have a question, so it's over to Mr. McColeman. Then we'll go back to the original rotation to see whether we can each get a second question.

Mr. McColeman.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brant, ON]

Thank you for joining us today and giving us this information.

I'm interested from a demographics point of view, if I may follow that train of thought. I know we're facing in our country the gradual passing away of the Second World War veterans. Then in our situation, of course, we have our veterans from Afghanistan now. In any of your planning, does your department do any projections based on any kind of actuarial or similar tables?

[Leigh Ann Skeens]

We do. That function falls under our policy and planning, over at the department. They maintain veteran population statistics and all sorts of demographic statistics. Within the different administrations—benefits, health, and cemetery—we do our own predictions for our workload. As you mentioned, the World War II veterans are quickly passing away, so that population is decreasing. What we're seeing is that the Vietnam veterans applying for benefits and those on our rolls are coming in at a higher rate to receive increased benefits or coming in for the first time to receive benefits, now that they are getting older.

We also have done some preliminary projections on what our population is going to look like, depending on how the global war on terror goes in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[Phil McColeman, Conservative, Brant, ON]

Thank you for that; it's interesting. If I get a subsequent question, I'd like to go down that road further.

[The Chair, Conservative, David Sweet]

Thank you very much.

Now we'll go back to Madam Sgro.