A Service Canada location in Toronto. Canadians can apply for EI via its website. Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons

Hundreds of thousands of jobless Canadians waited a month or longer in 2018 to find out if they were eligible for employment insurance (EI) benefits, newly tabled figures in Parliament show.

The documents show 16 per cent of all EI applications in 2018 took more than 28 days to process, the service standard length set by the federal government on processing claims.

Although the average application processing time for EI claims in Canada was 19 days in 2018, 463,284 Canadians had to wait more than 28 days for a decision. It marks an increase of almost 25,000 more claims compared to 2017.

For Canadians who had to wait longer than 28 days in 2018, the average processing time was 39 days.

The EI program provides benefits for Canadians who lose their jobs through no fault of their own and can’t immediately find a new employment. It also provides parental and maternity benefits.

Entitled claimants for regular, sickness or maternity benefits should receive their first payment within 28 days of receiving an application and all required documentation.

The Canadian government recommends individuals apply for income benefits as soon as he or she stops working in order to maximize the benefit amount.

More than 2.8 million EI applications, either for an initial claim or a renewal, were submitted to the federal government in 2018. Almost 90 per cent of total claims were accepted.

A total of 7,653 EI-related complaints were made in 2017 and 2018, with almost half based on issues around processing times, according to the documents.

The figures were tabled in Parliament last week, in response to an order paper question by NDP families, children and social development critic Brigitte Sansoucy.

She also asked for numbers on how often EI processing staff called back claimants within five business days, the service standard for returned calls on providing information on claims.

The documents show agents responded within five business days only 65 per cent of the time. The average number of days for a call-back by EI processing staff was seven days in 2018, one day more than the average in 2017.

EI call centres also have an annual target of having 80 per cent of calls answered by one of their agents within 10 minutes, although it was only reached 67 per cent of the time in 2018. Calls from Canadians will go to automated system with the option to request a service agent to speak to.

The numbers also show an increase in the number of staff working at EI processing and call centres, with a spike in indeterminate positions. In 2018, 3,164 people worked in EI processing centres and 1,424 worked in EI call centres.

Sancoucy was unavailable for an interview Wednesday evening, but said in a statement that the fact some unemployed Canadians have to wait as long as 41 days for an application to be processed is “simply unacceptable.”

“It’s obvious that there needs to be not only more resources and staff dedicated to handling these applications but also a comprehensive reform of the EI system,” she said.

In 2016, families, children and social development minister Jean-Yves Duclos moved to reduce the wait time for receiving benefits from two weeks to one in order to ease the financial strain for EI claimants and put an additional $650 million in the pockets of Canadians in 2017.

Duclos’ department also spent $73 million over two years to improve EI call centres and reduce call wait times. Another $19 million was spent to process an increasing number of claims.

In a statement, spokesperson Valerie Glazer said the Liberal government is proud to have invested in improving service quality standards and pointed to other efforts made to expand the EI program. She did not say whether the tabled numbers suggest a need to improving processing. Duclos was not available for an interview.

Glazer said reforms to EI “ensure it’s flexible and responsive enough to meet the needs of today’s Canadians.”

The House committee focusing on social development also recommended in 2016 for Ottawa to provide Service Canada with the resources required so it can better meet the 28-day target for first payments, as well as to handle calls and in-person visits more quickly.