Question Period Note: OLD AGE SECURITY PROCESSING

How has the Government of Canada managed the processing of Old Age Security applications and the Pensions Call Centre volumes?

Service Canada is committed to supporting seniors by ensuring they receive the Old Age Security benefits to which they are entitled.

Despite a growing number of Old Age Security clients, Service Canada is near meeting the Speed of Service standard, ensuring that 90% of clients receive their benefits within the first month of entitlement.

On November 3, 2022, the Fall Economic Statement announced $519M for Old Age Security processing and $90M for the Pensions Call Centre. With this funding, Service Canada expects to progressively improve overall results starting this year.

The Old Age Security (OAS) program is one of the largest programs of the Government of Canada. In 2021-22, the program paid $60.8B in benefits to 6.9M seniors. For a significant number of these seniors, OAS benefits (in particular, the Guaranteed Income Supplement and other income tested benefits) represent their only source of income. Not receiving these core benefits on time can cause serious financial hardship.

The year end OAS inventory for 2022-23 was 889,965 work items, which was within the objective of 800,000 to 900,000 work items. The current processing state shows that service standards can be achieved with an inventory level of 650,000 to 750,000. Approximately 62,000 new work items are received on a weekly basis. Any work items that are not completed within 30 working days become inventory.

OAS Processing Times

OAS workload refers to the processing of OAS applications, revisions to benefits and appeals, as well as the supporting elements that provide oversight, ensure timeliness, and quality. An aging population and rising life expectancy has increased the OAS client base, and therefore the workload.

In 2023-24, as of May 31 (the latest available monthly statistic), Service Canada paid 87.7% of OAS benefits within the first month of entitlement (with a service standard of 90%). In 2022-23, Service Canada paid 87.6% of OAS benefits within first month of entitlement.

Pensions Call Centres

The Pensions Call Centre offers virtually 100% accessibility, meaning all clients can choose to wait to speak to an agent rather than hearing a busy signal.

In 2023-24, as of June 16, 2023, the Pensions Call centre answered over 536,000 calls with an average wait time of 7 minutes. In 2022-23, Pensions Call Centre agents answered 2.1M calls, with an additional 3.1M calls resolved by the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system. For the same period, the average wait time to speak to a Pensions Call Centre agent was 41.3 minutes.

OAS Funding

The stabilization of OAS inventories is key to ensuring that seniors receive the OAS benefits that they are entitled to in a timely manner consistent with ESDC’s service standards.

On November 3, 2022, the Fall Economic Statement announced $519M for Old Age Security processing and $90M for the Pensions Call Centre. With this funding, ESDC expects to be able to progressively improve overall results for both this and future years starting in 2023-24 as agents become more proficient and meet service standards in 2024-25.

In 2023-24, as of May 31, 2023, Service Canada paid 87.7% of Old Age Security benefits within first month of entitlement (with a service standard of 90%), compared with 87.6% in 2022-23.

In 2023-24, as of June 16, 2023, the Pensions Call Centre answered over 536,000 calls with an average wait time of 7 minutes, compared to an average of approximately 41 minutes for 2022-23.

In 2023-24, as of June 16, 2023, the Pensions Call Centre achieved 99.9% accessibility, meaning virtually all clients were able to choose to wait to speak to an agent rather than hearing a busy signal.