Benefit programs

Many Canadians depend on benefit payments for a significant part of their household income. The CRA administers a range of ongoing benefits and one-time payment programs for the provinces and territories and the federal government, such as the Canada child tax benefit, the GST/HST credit, and the universal child care benefit. We ensure the right benefit payment is made to the right individual at the right time and give recipients accessible information and timely responses to their enquiries.

Benefit enquiries

For many Canadians, benefit payments account for a significant part of their household income, and it is essential the CRA give quick and helpful responses to their benefit enquiries.

Our call centres respond capably to millions of telephone enquiries each year. We met our performance targets for timely and accurate responses to enquiries about the Canada child tax benefit and the GST/HST credit.

While more users are opting for the convenience of our online tools, we are committed to maintaining our telephone enquiries service and to providing paper copies of publications to those who need them because we understand online services do not meet the needs of all benefit recipients.

Key results:

• 5.6 million calls to our benefit enquiries line in 2013-2014.
• We met our service standard target for timeliness by answering calls within two minutes 75% of the time for Canada child tax benefit and GST/HST credit enquiries.

Benefit programs administration

Renewing our Benefit Infrastructure

We are updating our benefits system through a multi-year renewal project. It will ensure we continue to provide benefit recipients with timely payments and information while enabling future program growth. The renewal project will also provide a solid foundation for the benefit programs and services we deliver for the provinces and territories and the federal government.

E-services

Our online services, supported by security procedures to protect personal information, represent the best opportunity to respond to the evolving service expectations of benefit recipients. Online services provide benefit recipients with a convenient and user-friendly experience. Canadians can apply for benefits with assurance their personal information will remain confidential.

We introduced a number of improvements to make it easier for them to receive clear information and timely services, and to enable us to respond to new opportunities for growth in program and service delivery, including those we undertake with our partners. For example, benefit recipients can now update information on the children in their care online.

Key results:

• Benefit and credit payments made by direct deposit increased to 64.8%, moving us closer to meeting the Government of Canada's commitment to phase out federal government cheques by April 2016.
• The benefits page in My Account registered 3.3 million visits and the Quick Access service logged 762,330 visits.
• Electronic submission for form T1013 Authorizing or Cancelling a Representative increased by more than 40% in 2013-2014. The use of paper forms decreased by more than 280,000.

Partnerships

We administer benefit programs on behalf of provincial and territorial governments which reduces the need for separate calculation and delivery systems at the federal, provincial, and territorial levels. For example, in July 2013, we began administering the Prince Edward Island sales tax credit on behalf of the provincial government. This tax credit is fully funded by the province and helps households with low and modest incomes.

Similar income-based eligibility criteria are used for most programs and, through data sharing with our provincial and territorial government partners, we are able to ensure the right benefits go to the right recipients, while simplifying the application process. For example, the CRA's Automated Benefits Application system allows participating provinces and territories to offer a quick, easy, and secure way to apply for all child benefit programs for newborns. In 2013, New Brunswick became the ninth province to adopt the Automated Benefits Application.

Key results:

• We administer 132 federal, provincial, and territorial programs and services.
• We reviewed 310,648 accounts based on our risk assessments and 66% of the files reviewed had to be adjusted.
• We processed 971,597 GST/HST credit account adjustments resulting from changes to recipient family situations such as a change in income, marriage, or a child turning 19.
• We issued 99.9% of payments on time.
• We made more than 120 million payments to close to 12 million benefit recipients.
• We paid close to $22 billion in benefit payments.

Performance results

Footnote 1: Includes statutory children's special allowance payments sub-program:
– planned spending ($238,000,000) and actual spending ($235,403,434)

Footnote 2: The figure represents the actual spending for the CRA on a modified cash basis, based on Parliamentary appropriations used. See pages 106-107 for an explanation of how actual spending relates to results in the CRA Financial Statements – Agency Activities.

Footnote 3: The cumulative Canada child tax benefit debt decreased in 2013-2014.