Question Period Note: Employment Insurance Processing and Call Centres

How has the Government managed the processing of Employment Insurance applications and call volumes in the era of COVID-19?

• The EI Program, including EI Sepcialized Call Centres, is at the forefront of the Government of Canada’s service to Canadians and the response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• The Department has ensured a seamless transition from CERB to EI for Canadians, despite the sudden influx of claims during the pandemic.
• Faced with unprecedented EI claim volumes and Canadians who continued to need financial support, the program implemented simplification measures and a streamlined systems process to increase automation and ensure that Canadians received timely benefit payments.
• As a result, the majority of Canadians have experienced efficient processing of their EI applications and received their benefits payments in a timely manner during this period of high demand.
• The EI Call Centre saw unprecedented call demand in 2020-21, exceeding any previous forecast in the history of the call centre network. At its peak, the EI Call Centre was receiving 280,000 calls per day to speak to an agent.
• With ongoing improvements, the EI Call Centre has been able to significantly reduce wait times for callers, while also increasing the number of callers who are now able to speak to an agent through 100% accessibility.
• Service Canada will continue to provide effective and efficient service delivery that meet the needs of clients, and will ensure that Canadians continue to have timely access to the EI benefits to which they entitled when they need it most.

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) is the largest federal service delivery organization in Canada, delivering almost $136B in benefits in 2019-20 to support Canadians at all stages of their lives.

The Department’s service standards measure the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of the delivery of its programs and services. These are fundamental in assessing how the Department carries out its work, and are integral to providing the best service to clients. These service standards are reviewed continuously and the Department adjusts its administration and processing to improve its performance in the areas of access, timeliness, quality, and cost.

EI Processing Speed of Payment

Service Canada’s key client service performance indicator for EI claims processing is Speed of Payment (SOP). This measures the percentage of initial and renewal claims for which payment (or non-payment notification) is given to claimants within 28 days of filing their application for benefits. The national SOP target is 80% on a fiscal year average.
• In 2020-21, SOP was met 80.0% of the time.
• From April 1 to October 16, 2021, the SOP was met 91% of the time.

Service Canada also measures the percentage of requests for reconsideration completed within 30 days of receipt (with a target of 80%).
• In 2020-21, requests for reconsideration were completed within 30 days 88.7% of the time.
• From April 1 to October 16, 2021, requests for reconsideration were completed within 30 days 92.4% of the time.

COVID-19 – Transition from CERB to EI

The Government of Canada implemented the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to support Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic. The CERB was available from March 15 to October 3, 2020. On September 27, 2020, ESDC began the transition from CERB to EI. Faced with unprecedented EI claim volumes and Canadians who continued to need financial support, the government implemented simplification measures to increase automation and ensure that Canadians received timely benefit payments. As a result, from September 28, 2020 to March 31, 2021, Service Canada:
• Received 3.8 million EI applications;
• Processed 3.76 million claims (95% of claims received were processed within 28 days); and,
• Issued almost $22.5 billion in benefit payments.

Post-CERB Context

On September 27, 2020, the Government of Canada announced a transition from the CERB to a simplified EI program and new income support benefits to better support all Canadians. These new income support benefits have eligibility periods from September 27, 2020 to November 20, 2021. The government is also proposing a further extension of this benefit until May 7, 2022 with an increase to the maximum number of weeks, and include:
• the Canada Recovery Benefit;
• the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit; and
• the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit.

On October 21, 2021, the Government of Canada announced changes to the temporary recovery benefits. This included:
• Introducing Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit (from October 24, 2021 to May 7, 2022).
• The extension of the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit by two weeks (from 4 to 6 weeks); and,
• The extension of the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit by two weeks (from 42 to 44 weeks).

EI Call Centres

The EI Call Centre serves as clients’ primary point of contact to discuss details pertaining to their individual benefit account, including account-specific information and assistance over the telephone.
As of March 9, 2020, the EI Call Centres migrated to a new call centre platform, which significantly increased the port capacity to ensure virtually all callers would have the ability to wait in queue to speak to an agent. Additionally, EI Call Centres quadrupled the Interactive Voice Response (IVR) capacity in order to allow more callers to be able to self-serve via the automated system.

A massive onboarding strategy was developed to increase capacity from 1,100 to 3,000 agents by the end of 2020-21 to reduce wait times while supporting a virtually 100% accessible environment, ensuring that Canadians continue to have timely access to the benefits to which they are entitled.

From April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, the EI Specialized Call Centres:
• Answered 5.6 million enquiries
• Resolved 27.1 million calls in the Interactive Voice Response System

As of October 22, 2021, in 2021-22, the EI Specialized Call Centres:
• Answered 4.0 million enquiries
• Resolved 7.8 million calls in the Interactive Voice Response System

• During the CERB period, from March 15, 2020 to October 2, 2020, Service Canada and Canada Revenue Agency:
o Received 27.57M Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) applications;
o Processed 27.56M CERB claims;
o Issued $81.64B in CERB and Employment Insurance (EI) benefits, of which:
 $74.08B were CERB payments; and,
 $7.56B were EI benefits (non-CERB) payments.
• Following the transition from CERB to EI, from September 27, 2020 to March 31, 2021, Service Canada:
o Received 3.8M EI applications;
o Processed 3.76M EI claims;
o Issued $22.48B in benefit payments.
• This fiscal year, from April 1, 2021 to October 17, 2021, Service Canada:
o Received 1.78M EI applications;
o Processed 1.62M EI claims;
o Processed 90.6% EI applications within 28 days (exceeding the internal target of 90% and official service standard of 80%).
o Issued $23.39B in benefit payments.
• Service provided by EI Call Centres to Canadians has improved significantly as a direct result of investments. For example:
o EI Call Centre agents answer approximately 130,000 calls per week on average, while answering over 160,000 calls in peak demand weeks; and
o Call wait times have been cut by more than 85%, from an average 85 minutes in January 2021 to approximately 12 minutes for the week ending October 22, 2021.
• Additionally, EI Call Centre agents answered:
o 4.4M calls in 2019-20;
o 5.6M calls in 2020-21; and
o 4.0M calls in 2021-22 (as of October 22).