Family Caregiver Relief Benefit

Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) summary

Government Institution

Veteran Affairs Canada

Government Official Responsible for the Privacy Impact Assessment

Carlos Lourenso
Director, Health Care, Rehabilitation and Income Support Programs

Head of the government institution / Delegate for section 10 of the Privacy Act

Crystal Garret-Baird
A/Director

Name of Program or Activity of the Government Institution

Family Caregiver Relief Benefit (FCRB)

Description of Program or Activity

The Family Caregiver Relief Benefit (FCRB) is a new initiative for Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC), coming into force on July 1, 2015. The benefit is payable as an annual grant of $7,238 (to be indexed annually) to Canadians Armed Forces (CAF) Veterans who meet the prescribed eligibility criteria. This benefit provides relief for informal caregivers while ensuring that Veterans continue to get the support they need when their informal caregivers are temporarily unavailable.

The benefit is payable to the Veteran who, along with their family and/or caregiver, can decide how best to use the funds to meet their caregiving needs. Informal caregivers are usually spouses, common-law partners, adult children, friends, parents or other adult family members. They support eligible Veterans by providing informal care or arranging for direct care for the Veteran such as making appointments, coordinating household tasks and providing basic assistance with daily living.

Description of the Class of Record and Personal Information Bank associated with the program or activity

Class of Records and Personal Information banks can be reviewed at: VAC's Info Source Chapter

VAC PPU 702 Family Caregiver Relief Benefit

VAC MVA 892 Family Caregiver Relief Benefit Class of Record

Legal Authority for Program or Activity

Personal information is collected pursuant to section 65.1 of the Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Act, as well as the associated Canadian Forces Members and Veterans Re-establishment and Compensation Regulations.

The legal authority requires that the individual be in receipt of a VAC Disability Award and, as a result of the disability, require ongoing care. In addition, the legal authority will require that the informal caregiver be at least 18 years of age and not be otherwise remunerated for his/her service.

Risk Area Identification & Categorization

The following section contains risks identified in the PIA for the new or modified program. A risk scale has been included. The numbered risk scale is presented in ascending order: the first level represents the lowest level of potential risk for the risk area; the fourth level (4) represents the highest level of potential risk for the given risk area. Please refer to “Appendix C” of the TBS Directive on PIAs to learn more about the risk scale.

Type of Program or Activity
- Administration of Programs / Activity and Services
- Personal information is used to make decisions that directly affect the individual (i.e. determining eligibility for programs including authentication for accessing programs/services, administering program payments, overpayments, or support to clients, issuing or denial of permits/licenses, processing appeals, etc…).
  Level of risk to privacy – 2
Type of Personal Information Involved and Context
- Social Insurance Number, medical, financial or other sensitive personal information and/or the context surrounding the personal information is sensitive. Personal information of minors or incompetent individuals or involving a representative acting on behalf of the individual.
  Level of risk to privacy – 3
Program or Activity Partners and Private Sector Involvement
- Private sector organizations or international organizations or foreign governments
  Level of risk to privacy – 1
Duration of the Program or Activity
- Long-term program - Existing program that has been modified or is established with no clear "sunset".
  Level of risk to privacy – 3
Program Population
- The program affects certain individuals for external administrative purposes.
  Level of risk to privacy – 3
Technology & Privacy
1. Does the new or modified program or activity involve the implementation of a new electronic system, software or application program including collaborative software (or groupware) that is implemented to support the program or activity in terms of the creation, collection or handling of personal information?
  Risk to privacy - No
2. Does the new or modified program or activity require any modifications to IT legacy systems and / or services?
  Risk to privacy - Yes
3. Enhanced identification methods - This includes biometric technology (i.e. facial recognition, gait analysis, iris scan, fingerprint analysis, voice print, radio frequency identification (RFID), etc.) as well as easy pass technology, new identification cards including magnetic stripe cards, "smart cards" (i.e. identification cards that are embedded with either an antenna or a contact pad that is connected to a microprocessor and a memory chip or only a memory chip with non-programmable logic).
  Risk to privacy – No
4. Use of Surveillance - This includes surveillance technologies such as audio/video recording devices, thermal imaging, recognition devices, RFID, surreptitious surveillance / interception, computer aided monitoring including audit trails, satellite surveillance etc.
  Risk to privacy – No
5. Use of automated personal information analysis, personal information matching and knowledge discovery techniques - For the purposes of the Directive on PIA, government institution are to identify those activities that involve the use of automated technology to analyze, create, compare, cull, identify or extract personal information elements. Such activities would include personal information matching, record linkage, personal information mining, personal information comparison, knowledge discovery, information filtering or analysis. Such activities involve some form of artificial intelligence and/or machine learning to uncover knowledge (intelligence), trends/patterns or to predict behavior.
  Risk to privacy – No
Personal Information Transmission
- The personal information is used in system that has connections to at least one other system.
  Mbr />The personal information is transferred to a portable device or is printed.
  
  The personal information is transmitted using wireless technologies.
  Level of risk to privacy – 2, 3, 4
Risk Impact to the Institution
- Managerial harm
  
  Organizational harm
  
  Financial harm
  
  Reputation harm, embarrassment, loss of credibility. Decreased confidence by the public, elected officials under the spotlight, institution strategic outcome compromised, government priority compromised, impact on the Government of Canada Outcome areas.
  Level of risk to privacy – 1, 2, 3, 4
Risk Impact to the Individual or Employee
- Inconvenience
  
  Reputation harm, embarrassment
  
  Financial harm
- Level of risk to privacy – 1, 2, 3

Date modified:: 2019-09-05