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[benefit programs]

[program description]

The CRA's benefit programs provide Canadians with the benefits and other services they are entitled to. The CRA delivers a range of ongoing benefits and one-time payment programs on behalf of the provinces and territories, First Nations governments, and other federal government departments (for example, the Canada child tax benefit, goods and services tax/harmonised sales tax credit, disability tax credit, and universal child care benefit). By providing accessible information and timely responses to benefit recipients by mail, telephone, and online services, we help ensure that the right benefit payment is made to the right individual at the right time.

2012-2013 financial resources (thousands of dollars)

(Footnote 1): Planned spending has been restated from what was shown in the Canada Revenue Agency 2012-2013 Report on Plans and Priorities in order to distribute the real property accommodations funding (previously centralized in the internal services program) to all applicable programs. It should also be noted that planned spending excludes severance payments, parental benefits and vacation credits, as this funding is received during the fiscal year and is only included in actual spending.

(Footnote 2): This figure represents the actual spending for the program on a modified cash basis. Please refer to page 156 for an explanation of how this figure relates to the CRA Financial Statements - Agency Activities.

2012-2013 human resources (full-time equivalents)

[sub-program descriptions]

[performance analysis and lessons learned]

[providing information]

Income security and benefits programs are essential to the economic and social well-being of many Canadians. We understand that the work we do directly affects individuals and families across the country. For this reason, we make every effort to give benefit recipients the information and tools they need to receive their entitled benefits.

The first stop for many benefit recipients looking for general information on benefit programs is our Web site. We have worked hard to make sure that our Web site provides useful information related to application procedures and eligibility criteria. In addition, we always attempt to use our Web site to answer the most frequently asked questions in clear and easily understood language. We also work in partnership with other government departments and agencies like Service Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, and Citizenship and Immigration Canada to deliver information to benefit recipients through their Web sites, publications, and service facilities.

In an effort to further tailor our services to benefit recipients' needs, our Web site includes useful online tools such as child and family benefits calculators. These enable Canadians to estimate the amounts they could be entitled to for various benefit and credit programs.

This past year, we updated our child and family benefit Web pages to make them easier to use. The new pages include improved navigation features that actively direct users to the information and services they need.

The way in which Canadians seek information and interact with government is changing, and we are working to meet these new demands for real-time services and 24-hour availability. As our e-services evolve, more and more Canadians are choosing them as the preferred way to find information and perform routine transactions. While we continue to focus on the expansion of our e-service offerings, we will ensure that benefit recipients who use the traditional service options will still be able to do so.

Key result:

• Our child and family benefits Web pages received 6.3 million visits, which represents an increase of 26% over the previous fiscal year

[enquiries]

The success of our e-service strategy is allowing us to reduce the transactional costs of providing services. At the same time, e-services allow 24/7 access to information and services for benefit recipients. The growth trend in the use of our e-services and the downward trend in the number of telephone enquires suggest that providing online information services is reducing the need for benefit recipients to contact us by phone. This is a trend we will continue to monitor.

The CRA recognizes that electronic services are not effective for all taxpayers and benefit recipients, and we remain committed to the delivery of a multi-channel service model. As part of this approach, the CRA sends notices to recipients at the beginning of every benefit year to describe their annual entitlements. Notices are also issued during the year to explain new account activity. In those instances, where additional support is required, benefit recipients are always able to discuss their needs with one of our telephone enquiry agents. In this past year, we have once again fulfilled our commitment to provide prompt and accessible telephone enquiry services for recipients.

Key results:

• The CRA issued 24.3 million benefit notices
• 6.3 million Canadians contacted our benefit enquiries service phone lines in 2012-2013. This represents a 9.6% decrease from the previous year
• We also met our service standard target of 75% for timeliness by answering calls within two minutes 77% of the time for GST/HST credit enquiries, and 77.5% of the time for Canada child tax benefit enquiries.

[self-service]

Canadians are embracing online services as the preferred method of conducting their affairs. The CRA recognizes this trend and has adapted its service offerings to include interactive online tools for benefit recipients. Our most comprehensive self-service tool, My Account, makes it easier for benefit recipients to manage their obligations and entitlements. These service options are reducing the need for direct contact with our service representatives, particularly for routine transactions. This e-service lets recipients view their benefit payments or their balances and statements of account online. Benefit recipients can also authorize representatives to act on their behalf or use My Account to perform account maintenance transactions such as changing their address, marital status, or direct deposit information.

In cases where a quick reference to benefit information is needed, we offer a service called Quick Access which allows clients to view some of the information contained in My Account such as the status of benefit payments.

Key results:

• The Benefits page in My Account registered 3.2 million visits and our Quick Access service logged 1 million visits
• 62.8% of benefits recipient contacts with the CRA were through online channels

[integrating services]

We continue to look for ways to simplify and streamline federal, provincial, and territorial services to make it easier for recipients to receive their entitlements. We believe that by integrating services across different levels of government and by capitalizing on our information technology systems, we can more efficiently and seamlessly deliver the benefits and credits to recipients. For example, this year, we worked with the province of Ontario to simplify the provision of provincial benefits. In July 2012, the Ontario Trillium Benefit was introduced, which combined the Ontario sales tax credit, the Ontario energy and property tax credit, and the Northern Ontario energy credit into one payment. In addition to combining these entitlements, the payment of this benefit was changed from quarterly to monthly. This change will make it easier for recipients to plan their finances.

We also began delivering the New Brunswick school supplement, a new program that came into effect in July 2012. It is a once-a-year payment that assists low income families in New Brunswick with the cost of back-to-school supplies for their school age children. Similar to the approach used for the Ontario Trillium Benefit, the amount will be combined with the payment for the Canada child tax benefit (CCTB) and the New Brunswick child tax benefit.

We are also playing an important role in maintaining the integrity of other provincial and territorial benefit and credit programs that we do not directly deliver. For example, provinces and territories are increasingly turning to us to either verify the eligibility of recipients or request information to ensure accurate payments for some of their programs.

To continue to provide the effective service delivery that benefit recipients and our government clients have come to expect, we are proceeding with the development and implementation of our benefits system renewal project. This initiative aims to revitalize the CRA's benefits processing system by including new information technologies. By modernizing our information technology platform, we will be able to maintain our benefit delivery system and build in the flexibility needed to respond to opportunities for growth and innovative service delivery on behalf of our government clients.

We also added two new income verification programs:

• the Northwest Territories Department of Education, Culture and Employment Student Financial Assistance Program; and,
• the Ontario Ministry of Finance Investment in Affordable Housing Program.

With these additions, the number of programs and services we deliver now stands at 127. The growth in our portfolio demonstrates our service delivery efficiency, making us the service provider of choice for income-based benefit and credit programs in Canada.

Key result:

• We expanded our data exchange agreements to include new programs such as the Ontario Trillium Benefit

[validating eligibility]

To ensure benefits recipients receive accurate benefits, we review and verify recipient information each year through our automated validation processes and in some cases, we even contact individuals to confirm specific account details. If account information is incorrect, we update it. Specific files are selected for review based on our targeted risk assessment models that identify accounts that may have a high potential for overpayments or underpayments. When inaccurate account information is identified, recipient records and benefit payments are adjusted accordingly. In the past year, we have improved our validation program with the addition of CCTB, and GST/HST credit, marital status reviews, and the foreign address review. These new review processes have allowed us to review another 37,000 accounts.

This year, we met some challenges in our CCTB Program. The accumulation of CCTB overpayments that had to be recovered reached 0.9% of the total payments issued. This was an amount above our internal performance target of 0.4%. This situation was created in part by changes that came into effect in July 2011. Specifically, CCTB payments are now required to be adjusted to reflect any change in marital status the month following of its occurrence. Previously, recipients could wait until they filed their tax returns to advise CRA of any change in their marital status. The CRA took a number of steps to ensure that recipients were fully advised through correspondence, in publications, and on our Website of the new reporting requirements. As well, we streamlined our procedures to allow CCTB recipients to quickly and easily change their marital status through our telephone enquiries services and online. However, these new reporting requirements have contributed to a short term increase in the percentage of CCTB overpayments that are required to be recovered.

Our validation activities ensure that we are delivering accurate benefits and credits to eligible Canadians, therefore ensuring the integrity and sustainability of the benefit and credit programs we deliver.

Key results:

• We reviewed 212,160 accounts, which represents a 23.5% increase from the previous year
• Because of our improved file selection process, 64% of the files reviewed required an adjustment resulting in an overpayment or underpayment, up from last year's result of 62.9%.

[processing]

Timely payments are important for benefit recipients. In some cases, benefit payments make up a significant portion of the income needed by recipients to cover their daily expenses, and delayed payments can mean financial hardship. For this reason, we set high standards for the timely delivery of benefit payments. Our performance expectation reflects this with a target of 99% for timely issuance of benefit payments. As our results below show, we continue to surpass this stringent requirement.

Payments not only need to be timely, they also need to be correct. Just as taxpayers have an obligation to file income tax returns and accurately report their income, benefit recipients need to promptly notify us of any changes to their personal information to maintain the eligibility and accuracy of their entitlements. For our part, we promise to complete account changes quickly. This past year, we once again surpassed all of our service standards.

Key results:

• We issued over 123 million payments to 12 million individuals and families on behalf of the federal, provincial, and territorial governments
• 99.99% of these payments were issued on time
• We processed over 694,000 applications and marital status changes
• We completed over 751,000 account maintenance adjustments
• We processed approximately 969,000 GST/HST credit account redeterminations

[conclusion]

In 2012-2013, we continued to improve our information provision and interactive services by simplifying our Web pages and offering new online tools. By continuing to improve our validation review processes and meeting our service standards associated with timely and accurate payment processing, we have shown the reliability of our services to our government partners and Canadians.

These improvements are helping us meet the evolving service expectations of our clients by providing them a convenient and user-friendly service experience. We are capitalizing on opportunities to simplify our procedures and integrate our services. Through these actions, we are helping to reduce the administrative burden placed on individuals while meeting the service and cost expectations of our government clients.

[performance results]

(Footnote 1): The study that produces this result is performed every two years.

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