Thank you.
If you are referring to the Pension Act, the new veterans charter and pension for life, the advantage of pension for life—and the new Veterans Charter, which was the precursor to pension for life—is that we now have a suite of benefits and services that can be provided to veterans and their families. It includes areas such as rehabilitation and financial support, whether it's the income replacement benefit or the Canadian Forces income support benefit. Those are areas that we did not have pre-2006. We only had the monthly disability pension and supports such as the attendance allowance and exceptional incapacity allowance for veterans who had very serious injuries.
We were able to step back and realize that this model was not enough for our modern-day veterans. They were in need of rehabilitation and support such as career transition services. Move forward to 2019 when we identified gaps in education and training, so we launched the education and training benefit. We also put in place supports such as the caregiver recognition benefit for family members or caregivers of the most seriously disabled veterans, to ensure they are getting what they need.
That whole suite of benefits is encompassed by a very strong case management system and other supports such as the VAC assistance line. We are working with our Canadian Armed Forces colleagues on the veteran family program to ensure that there is a seamless transition once a member is released and comes over to VAC for support. We are always looking at ensuring that Canadian Armed Forces members, veterans and their families are getting the supports and services they need.
As mentioned, where we have identified gaps in areas such as education, training and the caregiver recognition benefit, those supports have been put in place. Even if we step back again, since 2016 over $11 billion has been provided for veterans through our budgets. Most recently, in budget 2022, there was additional funding of over $201 million to continue to reduce wait times and address veterans' homelessness.
We continue to evolve to ensure that our programming is supporting the needs of those we serve, which is the most important thing—their well-being and their health.