Canada’s Employment Insurance program plagued with long waits

Canada's employment insurance program appears to be in turmoil.

In October of 2007, there were 181,931 people waiting for their claims to be processed, according to documents obtained by the Globe and Mail. By October of this year, that number had climbed to 360,481.

The growing queue, notes the Globe, corresponds with diminishing staff levels at EI processing centres, with numbers 13 per cent lower than in October, 2007.

As a result, Service Canada phone lines have become so overloaded just one in three callers actually reaches an agent and some Canadians have had to wait months to receive their first benefit cheque.

Minister of Human Resources, Diane Finley wrote an open letter to the editor of the Guardian newspaper, arguing austerity measures are not causing processing delays.

"When it comes to EI, our annual service standard is to process 80 per cent of applications within 28 days," she wrote adding her department is moving towards a more automated system.

"We are currently averaging 23 days for speed of the first payment. We are actually exceeding our target for the majority of Canadians."

But according to the Toronto Star, Finley's statistic is misleading because it includes non-payment notification, which can occur for a variety of reasons, including clerical errors.

The reality, notes the Star, is that many people are waiting six, seven, or even eight weeks.

Earlier this month, the paper chronicled the story of Stuart Mccabe who waited 46 days for his employment insurance money to arrive. During that time, the Oshawa father, who has been on paternal leave since Nov. 1, missed his mortgage, car insurance and hydro payments accumulating $400 in late payment penalties.

David Reuben wrote a letter to the Star, noting he had to wait 60 days for his first cheque.

"During the waiting period I could not make my car payments. And my special car payment protection said I had to be on EI for the payments to be covered by the insurance. My car was taken by GMAC as they could no longer wait for the decison from EI," Reuben wrote.

"To survive I had to go on social assistance, which was a humiliating experience."