About Benefit Programs and Other Services

The CCRA's work in the Benefit Programs and Other Services business line plays an important role in the efforts of federal, provincial, and territorial governments to provide support to families and children and to help reduce the depth of child poverty, by providing Canadians with income-based benefits and other services that contribute directly to their economic and social well-being. In all, we issue over $11 billion in tax-free benefit payments to over 10 million low- and moderate-income Canadians. For many recipients, benefit payments represent a significant share of household income. Most of the benefit programs we deliver are income-based, and participants must file an individual (T1) income tax return to receive them. Because we depend on the processing of T1 returns, the benefits “payment year” runs from July to June.

We administer four federal benefit and credit programs through this business line. Our two largest and best-known programs are the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) and the goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax (GST/HST) credit. The CCTB is a tax-free payment issued by the 20th of each month that helps over 80% of all families with children under age 18. Based on current plans to enrich the benefit in 2004, this figure is projected to rise to 90%. The GST/HST credit is a tax-free payment issued each quarter to almost nine million recipients covering nearly half of all Canadians. In addition, the Children's Special Allowance program pays about $125 million annually for children in foster care and institutions, and the disability tax credit program provides $365 million annually in non-refundable tax credits with respect to over 430,000 severely disabled individuals.

In addition to these federal programs, we administer 17 ongoing provincial and territorial benefit programs that deliver nearly $386 million annually to about 874,000 families and individuals. We also administered three one-time payment programs—for Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia—which delivered a combined $389 million to over 3.1 million recipients in 2001-2002. We also supply information to our provincial, territorial, and federal partners through data exchanges and transfers, to support the intergovernmental National Child Benefit initiative, as well as the programs our partners administer themselves (for example, to support the Ontario Child Care Supplement for Working Families, or the Employment Insurance Family Supplement and Guaranteed Income Supplement programs administered by Human Resources Development Canada).

In addition to administering benefit and credit programs, we also provide a number of other services to our partners and clients. We issue rulings for the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) and Employment Insurance (EI) programs to help ensure Canadians receive fair, impartial, and reliable decisions and related information. As well, we administer the Refund Set-Off program, under which outstanding debts of individuals owed to our federal, provincial, and territorial partners are offset against their income tax refunds, GST/HST credit payments, and provincial tax credits. We process payments for the Workers' Compensation Board of Nova Scotia and administer their First-Time Home Buyers' Harmonized Sales Tax Rebate. We have partnerships with Ontario and Nova Scotia to allow our Business Number to be assigned for provincial business programs, and we are expanding this arrangement to other provinces. We also administer sales taxes for several First Nations. We account to jurisdictions for our efforts on their behalf through Service Management Framework agreements, meetings between the Commissioner and provincial or territorial Ministers of Finance or their designates, as well as Annual Reports to each jurisdiction.

With the CCRA's large and flexible processing systems and infrastructure, we are able to support a growing number of federal, provincial, and territorial programs that provide social and economic benefits to Canadians. This supports sound public management and strengthens the social union in Canada. Some of our key activities and business line characteristics are listed below:

Spending Profile

As Exhibit 33 indicates, the Benefit Programs and Other Services business line had approximately $253 million in authorized spending for 2001-2002. This included direct social transfers to individuals under statutory programs, including Children's Special Allowances ($125 million) and other ad-hoc transfers such as the Relief for Heating Expenses program ($62.6 million). The remaining $65.8 million was available for program administration.

Exhibit 33: Business Line Spending

In 2001-2002, 6% of the Agency's overall budget was devoted to this business line, with 1.5% for functional programs ($53.4 million) and the remaining 4.5% for direct social transfers to individuals under statutory programs ($167.2 million). The $53.4 million spent on program administration represents an increase of some $1.9 million from 2000-2001. The lion's share (89%) of the $53.4 million was allocated to facilitation activities (such as ensuring the quality of our payments and notices, updating and adjusting client accounts, and processing forms and applications). The remaining 11% was allocated to assisted compliance activities (such as validation programs), as illustrated below in Exhibit 34 .

Exhibit 34: Total Benefit Program Administration Resources Allocated to the Compliance Continuum for 2001-2002 ($million)

Date modified:

2002-11-07