During federal fiscal year 2008, the number of claims received by the Minnesota Crime Victims Reparations Board increased slightly.  VOCA funding enabled the Minnesota program to provide critical financial assistance to over 1500 victims of violent crime.  Nineteen percent of claims received were for children who were victimized.  A majority of the claims received resulted from assaults, homicides, child abuse, sexual assault, robbery or drunk driving.  Many victims received funding for expenses such as medical care, counseling and lost wages.  Families of deceased victims were assisted with funeral and burial costs, and loss of support.  The assistance provided by our program was critical to the process of recovery and healing for many victims.  VOCA grant funding was essential to our program, and allowed us to maintain basic coverage to meet the needs of crime victims in our state.  Without VOCA funding, the Board's benefit levels would be substantially lower and victims would be left with devastating medical bills and other expenses they could not afford to pay.

The Minnesota program measures effectiveness by using a customer survey that is sent to recipients.  During federal fiscal year 2008, 94 percent of those who responded to the survey reported that staff was polite, professional and understood their concerns.  Eighty-six percent were satisfied with the benefits received.  One claimant responded that "this is a wonderful organization that is much help to innocent victims who really need it."  A few claimants indicated that although service was good, the benefits were not as much as they expected.  (The Board has been forced to reduce its coverage in recent years due to the rising cost of medical expenses.)  


To measure the efficiency and speed of claim processing, the program uses an average processing time.  This time period is calculated by an automated computer system which provides an average of all completed claims.  The average processing time for original claims during federal fiscal year 2008 was 117 days.  This does not include emergency claims which were processed much faster.

The VOCA administrative funds have allowed our program to retain one of our support staff who handles claim processing, payments and customer service.  This has enabled our program to provide high quality services to meet the needs of victims of violent crime.  Without VOCA administrative funds, one position would be eliminated and payments to victims would take considerably longer and customer service would suffer.