Summary of the Corporate Business Plan 2013-2014 to 2015-2016

4 [delivering benefits]

[total planned spending]

(thousands of dollars)

Forecast spending 2012-2013	Planned spending 2013-2014	Planned spending 2014-2015	Planned spending 2015-2016
383,130	382,510	382,314	385,942

[introduction]

Our benefit programs touch the lives of over 20 million Canadians who depend on the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the GST/HST credit, and the Children's Special Allowance to improve their standard of living and their quality of life. We provide accessible information and services to ensure that our citizens receive the benefits and credits they are entitled to, in a timely fashion.

[what we want to achieve]

To contribute to the social and economic well-being of Canadians by quickly and accurately delivering the benefits and credits to which they are entitled to.

[strategic context]

In line with CRA's strategic directions, we are re-engineering the way we do business to maximize how we use automation and e-services to increase efficiency, gather and use data, and better serve our government clients and benefit recipients.

Our goals are to:

• ensure timely and accurate benefit payments;
• position the CRA to take on more business;
• improve our systems and operational flexibility; and
• capitalize on opportunities to streamline procedures and reduce interactions with recipients.

[our core activities]

The CRA is one of the largest service organizations in the federal government. We play a vital role in providing income security to Canadians. Our core benefit activities include delivering:

• six federal benefit programs;
• 25 ongoing benefit programs that we administer on behalf of the provinces and territories; and
• several one-time payment credit programs.

It is important to benefit and credit recipients that we deliver accurate and timely payments. Our challenge is to ensure that we also meet the service and cost expectations of our government clients and remain responsive to the needs of individual benefit recipients. The most effective means of achieving this delicate balance is by adopting innovative service solutions. We will achieve this balance by:

• taking a client-focused approach that minimizes interactions and simplifies access to information and services;
• ensuring that our solutions are supported by evidence, data, and trend analysis; and
• continuing to provide secure and stable service delivery that is cost-effective for our government clients.

ensuring accurate payments

Our goal is to ensure that the right benefit entitlement is paid to the right individual. We accomplish this by conducting reviews to identify possible areas of non-compliance. Our reviews may decrease or increase benefits depending on the recipient’s individual circumstances. The validation process is designed to maintain the integrity of child and family benefit and credit programs. It also helps to inform individuals about their eligibility for benefits and credits. Maintaining the integrity of these benefit programs is vital to ensuring we do not create undue hardship for individuals.

electronic services

The CRA is a leader in delivering government e-services and we will continue to build upon our expertise in this field. We will be leveraging e-service technology to increase operating efficiencies and to streamline our service delivery. Two good examples of how we are using technology are:

• e-documents; and
• e-delivery.

e-Documents will allow benefit recipients to send us all required documentation, such as proof of birth or citizenship, completely electronically.

e-Delivery will allow us to electronically notify recipients of the Canada Child Tax Benefit, the GST/HST credit, and all provincial and territorial benefits programs of correspondence or action requests.

The introduction of the Automated Benefit Application (ABA) service has eliminated the need for separate applications for credits that the CRA delivers, including federal and provincial or territorial benefits. As part of the ABA service, the CRA receives birth information directly from provincial or territorial statistics agencies and uses this information to register Canadian newborns for the benefit and credit programs that we administer. This service has allowed the CRA to further simplify and reduce benefit recipients' application burden.

Over the planning period, we will:

• expand the use of our ABA services to the remaining provinces and territories;
• expand the e-documents functionality to the benefits recipient population in 2014; and
• introduce e-delivery to My Account.

benefits system renewal

The objective of this project is to renew and strengthen the CRA's benefits system by modernizing processes and incorporating more efficient technologies to address identified risks. By the end of 2018, we will have invested over $55 million in the Benefits System Renewal project. This will ensure uninterrupted delivery of benefit programs and services, and provide a solid foundation for the CRA to continue to respond to opportunities for growth in program and service delivery on behalf of our government partners. This enhancement will also prevent payment errors following life events like marital status or address changes.

Over the planning period, we will:

• develop and streamline our processing system and improve payment accuracy; and
• improve system sustainability and data quality.

[conclusion]

By providing accurate and timely payments, we make sure that individuals receive the benefits they are entitled to and that our government clients receive the efficient and reliable service that they deserve and expect. To achieve this, we strive to ensure that our workforce has the skills and knowledge necessary to provide Canadians with the benefits they deserve, to improve their lives, and to support economic growth and development.

[our performance indicators for delivering benefits]

We use the following indicators to assess whether we are achieving our core business outcome.

Our core business outcome – Canadians have access to the benefits and credits they are entitled to and related payments are timely and correct.

Activity	Performance indicator	Expected result ) (Footnote 1)
Quality of service	Percentage of administering benefits service standards met	100%
Migration to electronic	Rate of electronic service offering usage	Upward trend

(Footnote 1) Source: Performance measurement framework 2013-2014 except for rate of electronic service offering usage

Date modified:

2013-03-28