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Joyce Carter got some of what she has been asking for – but she says it's not enough.

The 80-year-old widow from St. Peter's, N.S. has been fighting since the Conservatives took office two years ago for an expansion of a program that helps veterans and their spouses to stay in their homes.

The 2008 budget extends that program to some of the widows and widowers of veterans who were not previously covered – but not all of them.

“It's very frustrating to think that they are going to treat them as Class A and Class B and there is no such a thing, they are all equal,” Ms. Carter said in a telephone interview.

The Veterans Independence Program, which provides up to $2,400 a year for services like housekeeping, lawn maintenance and snow shovelling to veterans and their survivors, has been given an injection of $282 million over three years.

“Today, many of our World War Two and Korean War veterans have passed away,” said the budget documents. “They are survived by their families, some of which require our support and help.”

Ms. Carter already qualified for the benefit. But she was distraught because spouses of veterans whose husband or wife died before 1981 when the program was introduced, or who became a widow or widower before their spouse applied for the VIP, did not.

The 2008 Budget announced Tuesday by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty goes part of the way to meet Ms. Carter's demands. The money announced in the budget will not give every surviving spouse of a veteran access to the program. But it will now be available to all of those who are in financial need or who are eligible for the Disability Tax Credit.

“I can't see why he can't give it to them all,” Ms. Carter said of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

“It shouldn't matter really what incomes they were getting. They were promised this and they should be receiving it. I think it's very unfair.”

Ms. Carter received assurances in writing from Mr. Harper when he was still leader of the opposition that a Conservative government would immediately extend the benefit to all surviving spouses of veterans.

She has been waiting three years for him to fulfill that promise and launched a grassroots campaign to draw attention to what she saw as an obvious inequity. Last year she conquered her fear of flying and came to Ottawa waving a copy of the letter and sat in the House of Commons visitors' gallery staring down at the government that had not followed through on its commitment.

The Conservatives had found after taking office that providing VIP benefits to all surviving spouses of veterans was a more costly proposition than they were willing to take on.

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