After a record year in 2020, Employment Insurance offices continue to receive a significant amount of claims for benefits. This situation, combined with a lack of staff, sometimes leads to processing delays of several months.
Employment and Social Development Canada says it received more than 3.8 million applications in 2021, down from the previous year, but 20% more than in 2019.
Despite this larger volume, the department claims to have been able to meet a good proportion of the deadline established for sending a notice. Between April 1 and November 30, 2021, approximately 88% of files received a response within 28 days of submitting the request.
In other cases, “the average processing time is between 29 and 35 days” and sometimes more, “especially for the most complex files,” the ministry said in an email.
For Sophie Daviault, the wait stretched out over about four months. And it’s not because of the complexity of his file, but “due to the current volume of work,” confirmed Employment and Social Development Canada.
The 29-year-old Montrealer was off work for a few months following a bicycle accident and a diagnosis of post-concussion syndrome last spring. During this period, she received EI sickness benefits which cover a maximum of 15 weeks.
She began a gradual return to work in September, working a few hours a week due to symptoms still apparent. At the same time, she applied for regular benefits, as her bank of sickness benefits was almost completely exhausted.
Then began a long period of uncertainty. Ms. Daviault has done numerous follow-ups with Employment Canada to find out the status of her file. Each time, she was asked to call back a few days or weeks later.
“My last call was December 22. I was told that we were no longer doing a reminder or reminder level because it was clogging up the system. […] Then that at the moment, they were directing people who were in an emergency situation to food banks, ”she says.
“They said they processed the files in order of arrival. So, for me, it’s a file from September, which means that they had not yet processed the requests for the month of September, ”adds Ms. Daviault.
It was a few days after a request for information from The Canadian Press to the ministry that she finally obtained a response on January 11, which turned out to be negative. Ms. Daviault is considering filing a request for review.
She considers herself lucky to have the support of her spouse and her employer, but has a thought for the most vulnerable people who have to live in anguish for several months.
“I always have the example of a single mother with children who has to support herself, and then her family, who receives nothing. I think it’s really horrible, ”she comments.
The “machine overheats”
The story of Ms. Daviault is far from unique, according to the National Council of the unemployed.
“I have files here that have been blocked for several months,” said spokesman Pierre Céré.
The usual administrative burdens of employment insurance slow down the study of these files, but the context of the fifth wave of the pandemic accentuates the delays even more, explains Mr. Céré.
For the past few weeks, the “machine has been overheating”, according to him, due to the latest containment measures in the country which have led to numerous layoffs, in addition to a lack of employees on employment insurance.
In many cases, files are just waiting to be assigned to an official for simple checks that require little time, testifies Mr. Céré.
“All this creates a situation that is not easy for employment insurance claimants who are waiting for their benefits to live and pay their bills,” he explains.
Employment Canada and the public service union say the absenteeism rate is “not abnormal” or “higher than in previous years” with COVID-19.
However, hiring over the past two years has been insufficient to meet the work overload, says Eddy Bourque, national president of the Canada Employment and Immigration Union, which represents most workers at Service Canada.
“There are agents who work up to 27 and a half hours more per week than their 35 hours of work,” says Mr. Bourque.
New recruits arrive as reinforcements after an accelerated training of a few weeks, but errors are more frequent, which requires an additional review of the files before sending the notices.
“They don’t give them enough of a chance to master what they’ve learned. […] It takes several months to train an agent” so that he is fully qualified, maintains Mr. Bourque.
Pending reform
In the eyes of Pierre Céré, these delays once again show the importance of reforming the employment insurance program to make it more agile.
“In many aspects, we must facilitate the management of an unemployment file on the side of civil servants so as to be faster, more efficient. We must improve the protections, then expand the coverage, ”he summarizes.
The case of Sophie Daviault is an example of what should be covered by the program, mentions Mr. Céré. The Quebecer was considered unavailable for work since she can only be at work for half days while being on sick leave the rest of the week.
“It’s black or it’s white employment insurance. You can work or you can’t,” analyzes Mr. Céré.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has mandated his Minister of Employment, Carla Qualtrough, to put in place by the summer of 2022 “a better and more inclusive employment insurance system”.
This article was produced with the financial support of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowships.