Our 2006-2007 Results

Our Program Activities

Benefit Programs (PA6)

We believe that if Canadians are provided with the right tools, information, and assistance, they will provide us with the information we need to register them on the appropriate benefit rolls and ensure that they receive timely and accurate benefit payments. When our efforts are successful, eligible recipients receive the right benefit at the right time, know where the benefit came from and why, are able to count on it arriving on the expected date, and can trust in our commitment to ensure the accuracy of the benefit and the information we provide. For this reason, our Benefit Programs activity has two expected results: benefit recipients receive timely, accurate, and accessible information; and eligibility determination and payment processing are timely and accurate.

We believe we have positively affected benefits compliance, and can validate that the eligibility of those receiving benefits and credits, and the amounts we paid, are correct in accordance with the legislation governing the benefit and credit programs that we administer.

Our Measure: Timely Information

The level of service we provided continued to meet our expectations for timeliness. We handled almost 7.7 million calls related to benefits in 2006-2007, as benefit recipients continue to view the telephone as their preferred method of contacting us. Our telephone enquiries service met the 75% target for answering CCTB calls in a timely manner (within two minutes of entering the call queue). Our GST/HST credit telephone service was similarly successful, with 73% of calls answered in a timely manner. We are continuing to work on setting a new target for this service in light of the experience gained with our national network.

Our Measure: Accurate Information

The range of our efforts to convey accurate information to existing and potential benefit recipients continued to meet our expectations.[Footnote 1] In 2006-2007, these efforts included the following:

• three million information inserts sent to all CCTB recipients with their July 2006 payment and notice;
• almost 1.4 million information inserts sent to all UCCB recipients with their August 2006 payment;
• 80,000 pamphlets and applications placed in the Welcome to Canada kits by Citizenship and Immigration Canada, to inform newcomers about potential benefits;
• almost 4.9 calendars sent with packages containing individual income tax returns, which promoted the My Account service and highlighted benefit payment issuance dates;
• 340,000 kits sent to benefit recipients who use the T1 NETFILE service, which contained fridge magnets and flyers promoting the Benefits My Account service;
• 250,000 flyers for participants in the Community Volunteer Income Tax Program to promote the use of the Benefits My Account service; and
• presented and exhibited Disability Tax Credit information at 16 medical conferences and included information inserts in various publications reaching almost 420,000 people, at no cost to the CRA.

Our Measure: Accessible Information

Recipients need to be able to access information and transactional services to ensure that they continue to meet program requirements. In our judgment, we met our accessibility expectations: during 2006-2007, 80% of CCTB callers were successful in reaching our telephone service, as were 77% of GST/HST credit callers.The use of our Web site by benefit recipients is discussed in “Achieving Our Benefit Programs Strategic Outcome” on .

Our Measure: Timely Eligibility Determination and Payment Processing

Our monitoring studies show that we met our service standards for timely processing of benefit-related transactions, processing 99% of benefit applications and elections[Footnote 2] and 97.8% of account maintenance adjustments requiring a notice to be issued on time.[Footnote 3]

As discussed in “Achieving Our Benefit Programs Strategic Outcome” on , we also issued 99.99% of payments on time.

Our Measure: Accurate Eligibility Determination and Payment Processing

Accurate processing for benefits encompasses a number of distinct aspects:

• accurately process payments in light of the information that recipients have provided us;
• accurately calculate payments in accordance with both federal and provincial/territorial legislation;
• minimize overpayments; and
• protect the integrity of benefit programs through our validation and controls activity to ensure that recipients get only the amount to which they are entitled.

Based on our records at the time of processing, monitoring studies show we met our targets by accurately issuing over 99.7% of benefit payments and notices when processing applications[Footnote 4] and 98.5% when processing account maintenance adjustments[Footnote 5] . These results confirm the accurate processing of account-specific enquiries and reflect the successful implementation of legislative changes in July 2006 to the benefit amounts and income thresholds for each of the federal payment programs, and for seven of the ongoing programs we administer for provinces and territories.

Accuracy is also demonstrated by the minimal value of benefit overpayments that are issued. Detection of overpayments primarily occurs through validation reviews which result in a debit adjustment. Net Canada Child Tax Benefit overpayments were $19.3 million in 2006-2007, representing 0.2% of the more than $9.5 billion issued. This result compares favourably with overpayments of 0.26% experienced since the program’s inception in 1993 and is half the target ceiling of 0.4%.

To ensure that benefits are paid only to those who qualify, we have a validation and controls program to target accounts identified as high-risk for potential overpayments or underpayments and, by the scope of its activities, to demonstrate that we have a credible enforcement presence among recipients. We reviewed over 310,000 benefits accounts in 2006-2007, with a special emphasis on the CCTB program, where we reviewed 207,000 (5.77%) accounts, exceeding our 5% target. Overall, we adjusted 190,000 accounts: this represents 61.4% of accounts selected for review, exceeding our target of 50%. These results suggest we have effective criteria for selecting accounts for review, as, by comparison, 95.5% of CCTB recipients were shown by our random sample estimate to have provided us with complete and accurate information (as discussed on ).

When accounts are adjusted through our validation and controls program, they involve cases where either we need to recoup benefits or insufficient benefits were paid. The total dollar value of identified overpayments was almost $186 million. Where recipients are overpaid, we recoup amounts from payments or other refunds and credits to which the recipient may be entitled, and apply them to the outstanding balance. If necessary, we take collection action.

At the same time, adjustments favouring benefit recipients amounted to $76 million.

A Snapshot of Benefit Programs (PA6)

Figure 21 Resource Spending	Description
	In 2006-2007, spending for this program activity totalled $351.0 million (1,886 FTEs) or 10.3% of the CRA’s overall expenditures (Figure 21).[Footnote 1] Of this $351.0 million, $303.4 million was for net program expenditures and $47.7 million was allocated to this program activity for corporate services.

Performance Report Card

Timely Information

Accurate Information

Accessible Information

Timely Eligibility Determination and Payment Processing

Accurate Eligibility Determination and Payment Processing

[Footnote 1] We assess our results for this measure using qualitative methods rather than quantitative indicators.

[Footnote 2] Internal CRA Quality Assurance Studies, Monitoring CCTB Application Processing Timeframes, Final Reports for May 2006, August 2006, November 2006 and February 2007.

[Footnote 3] Internal CRA Quality Assurance Study, Activity Types 307/308 Processing Timeframes, Final Report, April 2006.

[Footnote 4] Internal CRA Quality Assurance Study, Activity Types 395/397 (Accuracy), Final Report, January 2007.

[Footnote 5] Internal CRA Quality Assurance Study, Activity Types 307/308 (Accuracy), Final Report, September 2006.

Date modified:

2007-11-01