Section II: Analysis of program activities by strategic outcome

Strategic outcome

Eligible families and individuals receive timely and correct benefit payments.

Program activity 6: Benefit programs

Program activity description

• Providing Canadians with income.based benefits and other services that contribute directly to their economic and social well being through administration of the Canada Child Tax Benefit, Goods and Services Tax/Harmonised Sales Tax credit, Children's Special Allowances, the Disability Tax Credit, the Universal Child Care Benefit, and Working Income Tax Benefit advance payments as well as a range of ongoing benefits and one.time payment programs on behalf of the provinces and territories, and other federal government departments.
• Assisting benefit recipients in meeting their obligations through the provision of timely responses to their enquiries.

2011-2012 financial resources
(thousands of dollars)

Planned spending	Total authorities Footnote 1	Actual spending Footnote 1
356,806	385,717	369,783

2011-2012 human resources
(full-time equivalents)

Planned	Actual	Difference
1,592	1,357	235

Program activity performance summary

Expected result	Performance indicators	Targets	Actual results
Benefit recipients are provided timely and accurate eligibility determinations and payments, and have access to timely and accurate information	Percentage of the 10 service standards in force for Benefit administration and enquiries which have met targeted performance standard	100%	Met
	Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB) overpayment debt as a percentage of payments issued	less than 0.4%	Mostly Met

Performance summary and analysis of program activity

Providing information

The CRA's Web site is the primary channel for providing general information and tools to benefit recipients. The site offers information on the different types of benefits and credits available, information on applying online, online calculators, and commonly used forms. For instance, the child and family benefits online calculator gives users an idea of what their benefit amounts will be. We also use an electronic mailing list to notify benefit recipients Footnote 1 when payments will be issued and, to remind them of their obligation to notify us when their life situation changes.

Self-service

Many benefit recipients prefer to carry out their business with the CRA on a self-service basis, using our secure online portal for individuals, called My Account.

Recipients can manage their benefit information online through My Account by:

• viewing their Canada child tax benefit, universal child care benefit, GST/HST credit, and related provincial and territorial program payments;
• viewing their account balance and statement of account;
• authorizing representatives to act on their behalf;
• arranging for direct deposit; and
• changing their address or marital status.

Our Quick Access service gives individuals immediate access to some of their information in My Account. This service is a popular method for clients to easily access benefit information. This year there were 1,123,208 visits to Quick Access pages.

Our Automated Benefit Application (ABA) service, introduced three years ago, has eliminated the need for separate applications for credits that the CRA delivers, including federal and provincial or territorial benefits. Six provinces now use this service, with Manitoba joining in July 2011.Through the ABA service, the CRA receives birth information directly from provincial or territorial vital statistics agencies and uses this information to register Canadian newborns for the benefit and credit programs that we administer. The number of applicants using this service continues to grow.

• In 2011-2012, 92.4% of eligible applicants used this online service.

We continue to work with provinces and territories that are not yet using the ABA service to encourage them to do so.

Enquiries

The CRA's telephone services provide general information to taxpayers, and also help taxpayers with more complex enquiries. Taxpayers prefer to find general information themselves on our Web site and then call the CRA if they need further explanation or information on how it applies to their specific circumstances.

In 2011-2012:

• through agent and automated services, we answered 6,919,000 enquiries related to the Canada child tax benefit, GST/HST credit, and provincial programs;
• we met our service standard by answering 76% of our Canada child tax benefit telephone enquiries within two minutes; and
• we exceeded our service standards for accuracy and timeliness in responding to written enquiries and telephone referrals from call centres.

Validating eligibility

Canadians count on receiving the right amount of benefits on time, so we strive to ensure that we do not cause hardship by overpaying or underpaying them.

We need accurate and up-to-date information from benefit recipients to calculate entitlements correctly. We regularly review accounts and our processing results to verify the accuracy of payments. In addition to checking information with recipients about marital status, child care situations, and income, we use sophisticated risk-assessment tools to determine which accounts should be reviewed. During 2011-2012, we reviewed 171, 832 high-risk accounts and adjusted 62% of them.

We tell individuals how their accounts will be adjusted so they understand how we calculate benefits and what they are entitled to receive.

Processing

In 2011-2012, the CRA processed 762,000 applications for a benefit or credit payment and elections to change marital status. We dealt with 756,000 account maintenance adjustments, updating personal information on a benefit recipient's account. We processed 951,000 GST/HST credit account redeterminations.

In addition:

• we issued 111 million benefit payments totalling almost $21 billion to approximately 12 million recipients; and
• we issued $915 million in disability tax credits for 587,000 individuals.

Lessons learned

During 2011-2012, we added features to help individuals get quick access to their benefit information. Our work with targeted validation of accounts helped us to ensure entitlements are accurately calculated and to identify outstanding debts. We added services for our government clients, reducing administrative duplication and costs. The results that we achieved during 2011-2012 show that we met our outcome of ensuring that Canadians had access to the benefits and credits they were entitled to, and that related payments were on time and correct.

In 2012-2013, we will continue to improve our online information and interactive services to advance our goal of making it easier for benefit and credit recipients to access information quickly, apply for benefits that they are eligible for, and receive accurate payments.

Performance report card

Indicators	Target	2009-2010	2010-2011	2011-2012	Rating
Percentage of benefit recipients who receive payments on time	99%	99.7%	99.8%	99.9%	Met
Percentage of CCTB recipients who provide complete and accurate information and receive the proper entitlement	95%	94.4%	95.5%	Not applicable Footnote 1	Not applicable Footnote 1
CCTB overpayment debt as a percentage of payments issued	<0.4%	0.1%	0.4%	0.6%	Mostly met
Percentage of benefit applications and marital status change forms processed on time	98%	98.8%	98.7%	99.0%	Met
Percentage of CCTB accounts reviewed that were adjusted	50%	53.5%	49.9%	61.7%	Met
Percentage of accurate payments when processing benefit applications and marital status change forms	98%	99.4%	99.8%	99.5%	Met
Percentage of accurate payments when processing account maintenance adjustments	98%	100%	98.2%	96.6%	Mostly met

Date modified:

2012-11-08