I think the deputy minister has outlined the complexity of our forecasts and how it's not necessarily a straightforward matter to say that if a program is increasing it's related to one particular cause. But just quickly, our disability pensions, which is our largest program in the department, has been in place for many years. While Canadian armed forces members can have a disability pension, it's predominantly used by the traditional war veterans. As our largest program, we are seeing a decline in that area, driven by the declining numbers. On the new Veterans Charter side, we're seeing a 20% increase year to year in this program. That's a good sign. That's the number of people who are getting access to this program, coming into it and availing themselves of it.
I'll mention one area that's increasing quite rapidly, and that's in the earnings loss area. I mention this because it goes back to several factors. One is the enhancements to the new Veterans Charter, where there is a minimum pre-tax base for assessment. This allowed more veterans to avail themselves of it, but also increase the amount that they received. In addition to that, we have an increase in the numbers who are using the program. The third change is related to the recent decision to not offset disability pensions. So within one program, which two years ago was quite small, we've seen three major changes affect over 50% of the participants in that program.
To your question, our forecasts and our management of these programs is very precise, as precise as can be, but to the deputy minister's point, we have to always be prepared for variables.