CPP disability claims delayed by massive backlog, auditor finds

Auditor General Michael Ferguson's latest report lays bare massive delays processing Canada Pension Plan disability payments that have left some of the most vulnerable Canadians waiting years for benefits.

In his annual fall report released Tuesday, the auditor general uncovered an averageprocessing delay of 884daysthat has leftCanadians with severe and prolonged disabilities such as nervous and circulatory diseases, cancers and mental illness, among others waiting for a crucial source of income.

"These are Canadian workers. These are people who have worked in the Canadian workforce and they made their contributions to the CPP,and this is one of the benefits that they expect to be there when they need it," Ferguson said Tuesday.

"The department needs to treat it as a service for people and make the whole system better."

The auditor general also found Shared Services Canada is also unable to demonstrate any cost savings from its much-delayed streamlining of government information technology services.

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TheSocial Security Tribunal of Canada, created by the former Conservative government following the 2012 federal budget, was tasked with processing disability claims under the CPP, a program the vast majority of working Canadians contribute to through their paycheques.

But the backlog of cases waiting for an appeal has nearly doubled since the tribunal's creation, from6,585 cases at its creation to 10,871 by December 2014.

Similarly, theaverage wait time for an appealdecision has grown to 884days, more than doubling the wait timeprior to the change.

These figures fall well short of the Department of Employment and Social Development's service standard, which calls for a decision on disability cases within 120 days.

Auditor General makes recommendations for a wide-range of government programs

9 years ago

Duration 10:32

Auditor General Michael Ferguson discusses his report into CPP disability claims, border services and a communications error impacting Saskatchewan first responders

CPP program 'complete disaster'

A process designed by the former Harper governmentto be more timely and efficientis anything but, the auditor general found, with38 per cent of people waiting over a year for their appeals just to be heard by the tribunal.

"[Because of delays] there aremany months where somebody is trying to figure out how to cash flow, how to pay for their day to day expenses because they don't have that source of income. This program is very important to people to help them manage from day to day when they can't work," Ferguson said.

This outcome is the exact oppositeof what former Conservative minister DianeFinleyhad expected when she implemented these changesto the tribunal in 2012.Finleytold CBC News at the timethat the new process would be faster and eliminate overlap.

"The Social Security Tribunal is a complete disaster," NDP MPDavidChristophersontold reporters Tuesday.

"This is one of those that really matters, because it's a file to the bureaucracy and the government, but it's a person, it's their life, and it'stheir ability to pay their bills and quite frankly, they're being jerked around by the government," he said.

"The [Harper] government reallydidn't give a damn that thiswas taking so long. The Conservatives broke it and the Liberals have a responsibility to fix it."

Families Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said he was personally "moved" by the auditor general's findingson an issue that affects "the most vulnerable"Canadians.

"This situation is not acceptable. The [CPP disability]program is supposed to be there to support Canadians facing a severe and prolonged disability ...We must do better for them," Duclos said.

The Quebec City MPsaid fixing the tribunal was an "immediate" priority for his department, and plans were already underway to accelerate decision making andrectify some of the snafus.

Ministers respond to auditor general's report

9 years ago

Duration 9:12

President of the Treasury Board Scott Brison and Minister of Status of Women Patty Hajdu respond to the auditor general's report

Rejections overturned on appeal

The auditor also found thatan unusuallyhigh number of claims rejected by the department at the initial application stage were later overturned. For example, in the 2014-15 fiscal year, 35 per cent of initial rejectionswere reversed because the applicant was eligible after all.

Most of these problems were the result of hasty planning by the former Conservative government, the auditorconcluded. "The tribunal did not have adequate systems, procedures or service standards for decision times when it began operations," the report reads.

The tribunal took nearly eight months to meet and decide cases after its initial creation, which was a significant contributor to the mounting delays.

Beyond the wait times and back log, the auditor general found the initial application process was unwieldy fordisabled people.

The application kit containing 42 pages and five formsis "lengthy and complex" and can take several months to complete,the auditor general found. And because it is an almost entirely paper-based process it is much more costly for the department to manage than comparable programs like Employment Insurance, which is more web-based.

Emailshift put on hold

Similarly sobering findings are contained in themuch-anticipated audit of Shared Services Canada.

By March 2015, over 500,000 email accounts were supposed to have migrated to a new streamlined system.Only 3,000 had actually beenmoved over by that date, the audit found.

Furthermore, there's been no tracking of any cost savings as a result of the consolidation.

Last month, Shared Services Canada revealed efforts to createa single emailsystem for the government wereput on holdindefinitely amid technical problems, characterized as hardware issues that could have jeopardized the agency's ability to keep email up and running.

Theemailmigration began just over a year ago. Twelveof the43 organizations have moved 51,700emailaccountsand 12,100BlackBerryusers to the new system.

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Some 375,000 email accountsin43ofthe heaviest information technology users in the government are supposed to be on the new system by September. The original deadline waslast March.

The billion-dollar upgrade was expected to result in better service and annual savings of $60 million.

NDP asks what government will do to address AG report

9 years ago

Duration 2:27

NDP's David Christopherson asks the prime minister about problems with CPP disability benefits and government IT issues.

Reports suggest morale is poor among employees of Shared Services Canada, which was created in 2011 to streamline and modernize federal IT services by finding ways to share systems and technology across departments and agencies.

Instead, problems have reportedly created frustration among employees working withoutdated software and compromised abilities to communicate.

Other reportsreleased Tuesday include:

• A study of whether selected departments implemented gender-based analysis to inform government decisions.
• An examination of whetherthe Canada Border Services Agency has the necessary information, practices, and controls to prevent the export of illegal goods and facilitate legitimate trade.
• A review ofwhether Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Parks Canada, and Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada tracked contracts and shared information related to theLabrador Inuit Land Claims Agreement (LILCA) and two related side agreements.
• An audit of howthe Department of National Defence and the Canadian Armed Forces managed military housing.
• A report on whether accountability and governance has improved since a 2011 report on theFirst Nations Health Authority in British Columbia.
• Special examinations of two Crown corporations: the Canadian Tourism Commissionand the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority.

These seven reports and two special examinations weretabledin the House of Commons aspart of the auditor general's fall 2015 report.

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