Good afternoon. I believe I was invited to appear before the committee due to my contacting Ms. Lalonde with regard to my veterans' disability benefits claim.
Ms. Lalonde, I thank you very much for that.
I'll give a bit of a history on myself. I have served in the military for 30 years. I am in the process of being medically released due to injuries incurred during my service. I have three claims submitted currently. Two were in September of 2019 and one was in December of 2019. At the time of my applications, I was given a wait time of 52 weeks. That has long passed now. I still have not heard back from Veterans Affairs on a solution or on what I'm going to be receiving as part of my benefits. The last time I talked to them, they said it could be another 64 weeks before I hear back from them.
Two and a half years is too long for veterans to be waiting for the benefits that they are due after serving our country and after signing on that dotted line saying they are going to give their lives to the country if they are asked to do so. It's demoralizing on the part of the veterans that they have to wait so long for this to happen.
I made a couple of posts on Facebook saying that I was going to be talking to the committee today. Most of the comments I received back were asking why this is taking so long.
Families are going into debt because the member has been medically released, but it is taking a year, a year and a half or two years to get any benefits. Some people are having to find work even though their medical doctors are saying they should not be working at all because of their injuries. The veteran has no choice in the matter, because if they don't work, everything collapses at home. They cannot afford their home. They cannot afford their utilities. They cannot afford food. With the extremely long backlog of benefits claims and applications, veterans are suffering more and more, and it does not seem to be getting any better.
I know the government has said they were hiring more people to work on the claims. We are not seeing that, as veterans. All we're seeing are extended wait times and extended delivery times on what the government has promised us.
I, for one, just had my left knee totally replaced, so I am no longer able to even clear my driveway of snow this winter. I am not able to get on the Veterans Affairs VIP program, which would provide assistance for that, because my claim still has not been adjudicated. I don't know how I'm going to survive this winter without this being cleared up.
That's all I have, Mr. Chairman.