Problems with the processing of new disability claims from injured ex-soldiers have also had a trickle-down effect by creating delays in other areas, meaning more veterans are waiting longer to receive support from the government.
The revelations, contained in internal performance reports, appear to confirm complaints voiced by veterans groups and opposition critics about service at the department, and have prompted fresh allegations the Conservative government is failing those who have served in uniform.
“It justifies what we’ve been saying since 2010,” said Canadian Veterans Advocacy president Michael Blais. “We knew at that time that if there were any more cuts, services would be affected.”
The weekly performance reports, obtained by the Citizen through the access to information law, offer a breakdown on how the department has been doing when it comes to answering veterans’ calls and processing applications for various benefits.
The reports cover the period between August 2014 and February 2015.
Veterans Affairs has a target of answering 80 per cent of calls to its toll-free number within two minutes. The calls, which number in the hundreds of thousands each year, are often the first contact veterans have with the department and are routed to one of four centres in Halifax, Montreal, Winnipeg and Kirkland Lake, Ont.
Liberal veterans affairs critic Frank Valeriote said responding quickly to veterans’ phone calls is imperative given how many of them are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental injuries.
“This isn’t requesting more channels for your TV,” he said. “You can’t leave people who are suffering just waiting on a telephone call.”
But the reports show the department has consistently failed to meet its targets since September. Remembrance Day, Christmas and New Year’s were particularly challenging periods, with veterans having to wait nearly five minutes for an answer — if they didn’t hang up first. The reports show more than 1,500 unanswered calls in the week after Remembrance Day.
Officials blamed technical issues with a new phone and computer system, as well as problems transferring work to a private insurance company so staff could answer more calls. The department also chose some of the busiest times to have employees trained on and begin using the new system, which created hiccups.
“Yesterday, (Kirkland Lake) staff were off line for the first 15-30 minutes of their day as they signed into (the new system) for the first time,” officials said for the week of Nov. 10. “Once they were into the system, the queue of callers had built up and we chased it all day.”
Veterans Affairs Canada spokeswoman Janice Summerby said the dates were chosen “considering the impact on client service, the availability of both IT and non-IT staff, the size of the office, and the amount of data to be copied over.”
The department also had problems with internal communications and planning. For example, officials said the week of Nov. 17th that they “were not forewarned, nor did we anticipate the uptake on commemorative pins” that were announced by the government to mark the 75th anniversary of the Second World War.
The call centres also blamed high call volumes around Christmas and New Year’s for poor results at those times, even though they described the increase in calls as “typical for the beginning of January.”
Officials eventually decided to hire 12 additional, temporary staff “to compensate for ‘systems issues’ and mitigate our performance from September” to ensure they met their target of answering 80 per cent of calls within two minutes by the end of the year. They also hoped the eventual transfer of work to the insurance company would fix the problem.
But Summerby said as of the end of June, only 71 per cent of calls were being answered in less than two minutes.
NDP veterans affairs critic Peter Stoffer said he has received numerous complaints from ex-military personnel about the department’s toll-free number.
He said the delays are all the more unacceptable given the government has closed several Veterans Affairs offices across the country, and been pushing veterans to call the number or go online for service.
The performance reports also show that the backlog of new applications for help from injured veterans previously reported by the Citizen in other areas related to disability benefits.
In particular, the department is failing to meet its targets when it comes to re-examining previously rejected applications, and processing those where a veteran is asking for new benefits because of a worsening condition.
Officials have blamed a “convergence of operational challenges” for the delays, including difficulties obtaining records from National Defence and more priority applications. They have also cited “the learning curve associated with digitizing our processes” and a new requirement to call veterans for additional evidence before rejecting any claim.
But the delays also coincide with several rounds of budget cuts and hundreds of layoffs at the department, where staffing levels have fallen to their lowest point in 15 years. Veterans Affairs Minister Erin O’Toole has promised to hire 100 new staff to process disability applications, and an equal number of case workers.
Original Article
Source: canada.com/
Author: LEE BERTHIAUME
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