Benefits

Core responsibility

The CRA administers a range of ongoing benefits and one-time payment programs for the federal government and the provinces and territories. Benefit programs offered by the federal, provincial and territorial governments support the economic and social well-being of Canadians across the country. Indeed, many Canadians depend on benefit payments for a significant part of their household income and the importance of these payments cannot be underestimated. We need to be vigilant and have an effective administration in place to ensure that benefits are paid in a timely manner, especially where recipients still rely on paper-based transactions.

More than $31 billion in credit and benefit payments are issued by the CRA each year to more than 12 million Canadians. Benefits include the goods and services tax/harmonized sales tax credit, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and the Canada child benefit, which is a tax-free monthly payment made to eligible families to help them with the cost of raising children under 18 years of age. We strive to make the right benefit payment to the right individual at the right time, and recently began working with colleagues at Employment and Social Development Canada to improve our ability to do so. Overall, the CRA is taking significant steps to ensure that all Canadians, including Canadians with modest incomes, Indigenous peoples, and newcomers, are getting the benefits they are entitled to in a timely manner. We are also taking action to ensure that we are giving benefit recipients accessible information and timely responses to their enquiries.

Outreach

Outreach is an important component of the CRA's client-focused approach to service and is one of many elements that comprise the Agency's drive to be a world-class tax and benefit administration. The Agency continues to reach out to Canadians to ensure that everyone is receiving the benefits to which they are entitled.

Over the planning period we intend to further develop and enhance our outreach efforts, especially within Indigenous communities and other segments of the Canadian population who may not be aware of what benefits and services are available to them.

One of our most successful outreach efforts has been the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program (CVITP). Through the program, volunteers across Canada help to prepare income tax and benefit returns for Canadians who may not have the means or knowledge to prepare their own returns. The CVITP works with Indigenous peoples, seniors, persons with disabilities, and individuals with low or fixed incomes. In collaboration with partner organizations, the CRA provides the necessary training and support to the many volunteers who host the free tax preparation clinics. Beginning in 2018, our CVITP volunteers will be able to make use of the CRA's Auto-fill my return service. Access to this service will significantly help volunteers in the important work that they do. By being able to automatically fill in parts of a taxpayer's income tax and benefit return with information that the CRA has available at the time of filing, volunteers will be able to complete returns more quickly than before, the CRA will be able to process them faster, and there will be greater certainty that CVITP clients will receive the benefits to which they are entitled with little or no delay.

Digital services

The CRA's digital services are at the forefront of providing the best possible service to benefit recipients and their use has been a significant factor in ensuring that benefits are delivered to Canadians efficiently, securely, and on time.

The Agency plans to further improve "MyBenefits CRA", the web-based mobile app designed specifically for benefit recipients. It has proven to be invaluable in giving benefit recipients a fast, easy, and secure way to verify the amount and date of upcoming benefit payments. Recent enhancements have allowed users to view the breakdown in their payment between federal and provincial/territorial benefits. In addition, benefit recipients can now also view and update their marital status and view information the CRA has about children in their care.

Looking ahead, the Agency's approach to developing mobile apps will ensure that any changes to a mobile service such as MyBenefits CRA will be made according to set principles and using a consistent approach. To this end the Agency will ensure that there is a strong focus on implementing features that incorporate designs and services that improve the application's ease of use for benefit recipients.

Telephone services

Even in the era of the Internet and web-based services, the telephone often remains a vital form of communication for many Canadians. This is especially true for individuals who need to know if they are eligible for benefits, or when their payments will be issued.

The Agency continues to strive to improve its call centre technology and to provide more accessible telephone service. In partnership with Shared Services Canada and other government organizations, we are actively evaluating and developing new call centre technology for our individual enquiries call centres. The technology will offer modern contact centre features such as centralized queuing, wait time information, skills based routing, and workforce management. These features will contribute to the efficiency of the CRA's call centre operations – reducing busy signals and improving service overall for those Canadians who rely on our benefit enquiries line for information.

The Agency intends to closely monitor call volumes to determine the impact of our call centre initiatives. We will also be monitoring the issues and questions being raised by callers to better understand their information needs and the most common reasons for calls.

All the call centre measures that we plan to implement over the next planning period should significantly improve the client-focused service that we strive to provide to benefit recipients. They will also significantly contribute to the Agency's strategic priority of service and to the Government's over-arching goal of social inclusion.

Benefit administration

The Canada child benefit is one of the more significant benefits administered by the CRA. By July 2018, the Agency plans to simplify the application process, both digitally and on paper. Changes to the Canada child benefit application form will be made, and information on the CRA's website and in Agency publications will provide clear details on what applicants need to provide, and when, so that their eligibility for benefits can be determined accurately and quickly.

As noted earlier, the CRA and Employment and Social Development Canada initiative called "Tell-Us-Once" will allow Canadians to inform either department about their direct deposit or address information and be assured that the information is updated simultaneously with the other department. This will greatly facilitate the provision of benefits to eligible Canadians. By February 2019, the CRA and Employment and Social Development Canada intend to have organizational structures and processes in place that will allow both organizations to share information in relation to Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security payments. By February 2020, we anticipate a similar arrangement for sharing information with respect to employment insurance payments.

Planning highlights

• Reduce processing times for returns completed through the CVITP, as well as reduce the processing times for assessing any benefits payable to CVITP clients
• Enhance the client-focused service provided to benefit recipients by improving the CRA's understanding of the tax and benefit information needs of Canadians

Expected results

• Allow the use of the Auto-fill my return service by CVITP volunteers in February 2018, so that parts of the income tax returns of Canadians using the CVITP service will be automatically completed
• Develop a quality monitoring program and introduce a national centralized listening team to improve the quality and accuracy of responses to telephone enquiries
• Enhance the MyBenefits CRA mobile app, implementing features that incorporate designs and services to improve ease of use in accordance with the CRA's mobile app strategy (first new features to be implemented by March 2019)
• Implement the "Tell-Us-Once" initiative for sharing direct deposit and address information between CRA and Employment and Social Development Canada for Canada Pension Plan and Old Age Security payments by February 2019, and for employment insurance payments by February 2020
• In partnership with Shared Services Canada and other government organizations, actively evaluate and develop new call centre technology for our individual enquiries call centres

Benefits planned results

The CRA's Departmental Results Framework demonstrates how CRA's work contributes both to government priorities and overall well-being of Canadians. The framework identifies the indicators that are used to assess overall progress towards the outcomes we are striving to achieve and provides a foundation for accuracy and transparency in reporting our results to Parliamentarians and Canadians.

The Treasury Board of Canada guidelines requires departments and agencies to include all departmental results, departmental result indicators and targets.

Benefits budgetary financial (dollars) and human resources (full-time equivalents)

Financial, human resources and performance information for the CRA's Program Inventory is available in the GC InfoBase.