CVAP Counselling Benefits
Cory Stevens, RCC
What is the provincial Crime Victim Assistance Program (CVAP)?
The Crime Victim Assistance Program has existed in British Columbia since 1972. It is a financial benefits program that exists to compensate individuals for any financial losses that they may have incurred as a result of being the victim of a crime.
The benefits that CVAP can award depend on whether you were the victim of the crime, an Immediate Family Member (IFM) of the victim, or a witness to the crime. The benefits that you may be eligible for depend on your claimant category:
| Victim | IFM | Witness | |
| Counselling services or expenses | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Prescription drug expenses | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Transportation and related expenses | ✔ | ✔ | ✔ |
| Income support | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Vocational services or expenses | ✔ | ✔ | |
| Funeral expenses | ✔ | ||
| Loss of parental guidance for a minor child | ✔ | ||
| Earnings loss due to bereavement leave | ✔ | ||
| Medical or dental services or expenses | ✔ | ||
| Disability aids | ✔ | ||
| Protective measures, services or expenses | ✔ | ||
| Repair or replacement of damaged or destroyed personal property | ✔ | ||
| Home modification, maintenance or moving expenses | ✔ | ||
| Vehicle modification or acquisition | ✔ | ||
| Homemaker, childcare or personal care services or expenses | ✔ | ||
| Maintenance for a child born as a result of a prescribed offence | ✔ | ||
| Lost earning capacity | ✔ |
How can I know if I may be eligible for benefits through CVAP?
The three main eligibility criteria are:
- the incident in question is considered a prescribed offence according to Schedule 1 within the Crime Victim Assistance (General) Regulation;
- the offence took place in British Columbia; and
- the submission of your application to CVAP takes place within two years from the date of the prescribed offence.
There are some limited exceptions to these rules – for example, the two-year window for submitting an application does not apply if the offence was a sexual assault or for an incident of a sexual nature that occurred while the victim was a minor child (i.e. under 19 years of age).
There can also be a lengthy process of collecting evidence to support a claim once it is submitted, which typically involves CVAP personnel requesting information from police departments, medical professionals, occupational therapists, and anyone else involved in supporting the claimants as they recover from the incident. Ultimately, the claim goes to an adjudicator to determine whether the claim is approved and, if so, which benefits are awarded.
If I am considering making a CVAP claim, how can I know which benefits I might be eligible for?
The benefits awarded through CVAP are always awarded in relation to the prescribed offence which occurred, and are intended to limit or redress any financial losses that took place due to the incident. Consider some examples:
- If someone was physically assaulted and sustained damage to their face and mouth (e.g. broken prescription eyeglasses, several chipped teeth), they may want to consider requesting:
- counselling
- dental services (for the repair of the damaged teeth)
- prescription drug expenses (to cover the cost of painkillers)
- repair/replacement of damaged personal property (to cover the cost of new prescription glasses)
- However, based on the nature of the incident, they may not qualify for benefits such as:
- vocational services (if they were able to return to work shortly after the incident)
- childcare services (if they have not incurred a disability resulting from the assault that prevents them from taking care of their children)
A general rule to follow when applying to CVAP is to start from the financial costs of the crime (e.g. prescription medication, counselling costs, medical procedures) and work backwards from them to identify the benefits you may want to request. Being vague or inaccurate in terms of what benefits are needed and why can cause unnecessary delays in the information collection and claims adjudication process.
CVAP’s most commonly-awarded benefit is counselling services. As long as a counsellor is registered with the program and a client has an approved counselling benefit from CVAP, the program may reimburse the counsellor for services provided to a client relating to the prescribed offence for which the sessions were awarded. In other words, CVAP requires that all awarded sessions must focus primarily on the crime and its psychological impacts on the claimant and shouldn’t stray too far into unrelated topics.
How much does CVAP pay for counselling? Will I have to pay anything out-of-pocket?
The amount that CVAP is able to cover for counselling costs is determined legislatively (see Schedule 2 of the Crime Victim Assistance Program (General) Regulation) – the program itself doesn’t have any authority to adjust or increase the amounts that they pay out. The fee that counsellors qualify for is determined based on their level of education and experience. As a CVAP-registered counsellor, I qualify for reimbursement at the rate of $135 per session. My typical hourly rate is $140 per 50-minute session, but I charge $135 per 50-minute CVAP session to avoid passing on further costs to those who have been impacted by crime.