VIP Changes to Benefit Survivors

In May 2003, a regulation was changed so that housekeeping and/or grounds maintenance services provided under the Veterans Independence Program (VIP) could be extended for as long as needed to some survivors. Another change in the regulation in December 2003 expanded eligibility to include qualified survivors of veterans who were receiving these services at the time of their death, on or after September 1, 1990. It also allowed primary caregivers to be considered should there be no survivor at the time the VAC client passed away. Over the next five years, the regulation will benefit more than 30,000 people who devoted themselves to the care and well-being of qualified VAC clients who:

• passed away on or after September 1, 1990; and
• were receiving VIP housekeeping and/or grounds maintenance at the time they died or passed away in a health care facility but in the year prior to their death had been receiving these VIP services.