Some of that information is public and I can therefore share it with you.
First of all, imagine that you are a soldier returning from Afghanistan. Let's suppose that you were wounded. For the first three years after your return, you remain under the responsibility of the Department of National Defence and you receive your full salary, as usual. Furthermore, during that period, you will be assessed as to the extent of your disability and, based on that, you will receive a lump-sum payment.
But it does not stop there. When these individuals come back to Veterans Affairs, we encourage them to enroll in a rehabilitation program. The idea is not to leave someone to fend for himself, but rather to ensure that he is rehabilitated and transitions to civilian life—particularly since our “new” veterans are much younger. We don't want them to be sitting at home watching their life go by. I think we would be remiss in our duties were we to do that. So, we encourage them to enroll in a rehabilitation program. While they are in that program, they receive 75% of the wages they were receiving when they left the military, until they are rehabilitated or have found a job offering comparable wages to what they were previously receiving. So, there are both of those things—not just a lump-sum payment and nothing else. The two are linked.
It is important for us to give these individuals an opportunity to be rehabilitated, to return to civilian life, to continue to grow and live an active life based on the plan that is developed. If a person is not able to do that and is permanently disabled, at that point, 75% of his or her wages will continue to be paid until the age of 65. So, those are the facts.
At the same time, it is also possible that these individuals, when they are given a single lump-sum payment, end up making poor use of it. I won't give any specific examples, but this is something we must assess. If that is true, then we have a responsibility to find a solution. If we determine that some people are misusing this money, we may have to review our process and our way of doing things. I do not yet have that information, but that is where we are at present.