Consultants conducting a $1.3 million review of delays in veterans' compensation claims spoke to only two families and received three submissions in investigating the troubled system, it has been revealed.
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Department of Veterans' Affairs officials have told senators the evidence that consultancy firm McKinsey gathered included about 30 emails sent to new portfolio minister Andrew Gee's office with ideas to reduce delays in compensation claims for ex-services personnel.
The backlog in compensation claims is growing as some veterans wait more than 200 days for the department to process their applications for payments. Veterans' Affairs has said it is not able to meet growing demand, and reported the backlog in claims had reached 65,000 by December last year, up from 56,000 in July 2021.
Labor MPs have called the review a broken promise to veterans and criticised the scarcity of evidence it gathered from veterans and families experiencing long delays in receiving compensation owed to them for conditions and injuries acquired during service.
The McKinsey review, announced in October, was one of Mr Gee's first acts after he replaced Darren Chester in the portfolio. Mr Gee promised the consultants would not deliver just another review but an action plan with immediate milestones to reduce the backlogs and delays in compensation claims for veterans. There have been multiple reviews and inquiries over many years of the causes of delays in claims, and their impact on ex-services personnel. A Royal Commission is also now investigating the barriers faced by veterans' in receiving compensation.
McKinsey completed its review on December 17 however Veterans' Affairs Department secretary Liz Cosson did not reveal the findings or table the document in a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday, saying it was still being considered by Mr Gee.
Ms Cosson also did not say what milestones for action it had identified to deliver some early improvements to the system, but admitted the review did not set out any "quick wins" the department could achieve.
Labor senator Tim Ayres said that despite Mr Gee's promise of swift action, the review had provided no immediate results and the problems in claims processing - identified throughout previous investigations and Senate hearings - remained the same.
McKinsey spoke to two families, received three written submissions, and another 33 emails forwarded from Mr Gee's office, Veterans' Affairs officials said.
Mr Ayres questioned the extent of the research.
"How is that a robust evidence base? We've got a very significant undertaking in terms of the Royal Commission, a very obvious set of issues. I'm trying to be patient with the idea that another review somehow is going to add value here, but a $1.3 million review that's spoken to two families?" he said.
"We can't see the review. We don't know what the result's going to be. And we're six months down the track."
Ms Cosson said the consultants spoke to departmental staff members, including in workshops, as it reviewed the claims processing system. The department also consulted groups representing ex-services personnel.
"McKinsey did some really good diagnostic work to understand what was the heart of the problem and did actually identify some ideas that we could consider taking forward. But at this stage, Senator, it really is something that's actively being considered by the the minister and the department," she told Senator Ayres.
The department secretary said the consultants were looking at an action plan for the department to reduce the claims backlog with six, 12 and 18 month milestones, and that Veterans' Affairs had commissioned the review to see whether its efforts to reform its claims processing would reduce its growing backlog of claims.
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In a joint statement on Friday, Senator Ayres and Labor veterans' affairs spokesman Shayne Neumann said the opposition had always been sceptical of the McKinsey review.
"With no public findings, no public recommendations and an apparent lack of credible evidence, this whole exercise has been an expensive waste of time," they said.
Mr Gee in October said the claim delays were unacceptable and McKinsey would provide "a fresh pair of eyes" to look at claims processing.
The minister on Friday said speeding up the claims process, cutting the backlog, and improving the experience for veterans and their families were priorities since he took the Veterans' Affairs portfolio.
The government was analysing the costings of a number of the McKinsey review's proposals through the budget process.
"I would expect this work will conclude in the near future, along with the release of the report," Mr Gee said.
"Importantly, we have already taken action to improve the claims process by committing an additional $98 million for hundreds of more staff at the Department of Veterans' Affairs, primarily focused on claims processing.
"I am confident that McKinsey's work, as well as the additional staff we are providing, will reduce waiting times and the backlog of claims, and make the claims process easier for veterans and their families."
The department has filled 360 of its 447 new internal positions after the government lifted its cap on public servants in the last budget. Veterans' Affairs has converted many of its labour hire workers into internal staff, reducing the percentage of its workforce who are contractors from 38 per cent to 34 per cent in six months.
Despite the uplift in internal staffing, the department's labour hire spending remains largely unchanged at $37.3 million between July 1 and December 31 last year.
Ms Cosson said the Veterans' Affairs Department still needed labour hire workers in dealing with compensation claims.
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