Veterans Affairs Canada has a long and proud history of providing services and benefits to qualified Canadian veterans and their families in a caring and compassionate way.
Our primary focus continues to be meeting the health care needs of disabled veterans to help maintain and improve their quality of life.
Following the First World War, Veterans Affairs Canada began developing a number of innovative programs to help veterans reintegrate into civilian life and society. More recently, in keeping with their advancing age, Veterans Affairs has developed state of the art programs and partnerships to help veterans remain in their homes and communities and to maintain their independence.
Veterans legislation provides for circumstances where the Department can be called upon to administer the monies a veteran receives from the Department if that veteran is incapable or unable to manage their affairs.
In such cases the veteran could be entitled to be placed in long-term institutional care where all his/her health care treatment and needs of daily living would be provided at no cost to him/her. During this time, the individual's monthly benefit cheques would accumulate, and if there were no immediate family member in need of this support, then the money would be placed by Veterans Affairs into an administered account. Prior to 1990, no interest was paid on this money, nor were any administrative fees levied.
Following departmental studies, consultations and reviews of administered accounts by the Auditor General of Canada, Veterans Affairs drastically reduced the number of administered accounts from more than 4,700 in 1986.
The Government also responded by introducing legislation which specifically provided for the payment of interest on monies administered by Veterans Affairs Canada effective January 1, 1990 and barred retroactive payment of interest prior to this date.
Today the Department only administers some 150 accounts for those who are in fundamental agreement with the arrangements or for whom no alternatives can be found.
