Service Canada fiddles stats while pensioners wait for their cheques

Manipulating performance statistics at the expense of service to the public is nothing new at Service Canada, and the latest example is hurting Canadian seniors who are waiting for their pension cheques. Rather than working on the oldest pension applications, staff are being instructed to deal with the simplest and most recent files to generate “quick hits” in the department’s performance measurement system.

CEIU National President Jeannette Meunier-McKay said that Canada Pension and Old Age Security staff who normally deal with complex files have been diverted to work on the simple applications that can be pushed through quickly. However, there is no urgency to many of these simple cases because they are filed months before the applicants are actually entitled to receive their pensions. Left waiting are many pensioners who should already be receiving their cheques. Their cases are often complex and require more time to handle, but the staff who specialize in such cases are the ones management has diverted to generate “quick hits” in the performance measurement system.

Meunier-McKay condemned Service Canada’s handling of pension applications, saying “This is no way to treat our seniors. Management is putting its own interest ahead of the people our members are trying to serve. And for our members working at call centres, management’s actions are boosting an already heavy workload as seniors anxious to receive their first pension cheque are phoning in search of help.”

The union has exposed similar Service Canada practices in the processing of unemployment insurance claims. Management ordered staff to cease work on claims over 28 days old in favour of more recent applications. The objective for management was the same as with pension applications: generate good statistics at the expense of the real needs of the Canadian public.

“It’s our members who are on the front lines—not management” said Meunier-McKay, “They are the ones who have to deal with the anger, the frustration and, all too often, the painful desperation of seniors who can’t pay their bills. Our members are sick of being the unwilling accomplices of a management approach that puts statistics ahead of people. It’s time for Service Canada to get its priorities straight.”