A newly released report from Provincial Auditor Tara Clemett shows that 64 per cent of the 255,000 total calls received by the Saskatchewan Income Support (SIS) program over a six month period went unanswered.
The findings were included in Clement’s auditors report on the Ministry’s processes, which was released on Tuesday. Monthly results showed that only 48 to 66 per cent of SIS calls were addressed in 20 minutes or less, according to the report.
Six recommendations to the Ministry have been made in order to improve access for individuals looking to apply for SIS benefits, including making computers available at all Social Services offices, offering sufficient in-person assistance with the SIS application process, and consistently providing a call-back function.
“People experiencing difficult circumstances in struggling to meet their basic needs require clear and accessible ways to apply for income assistance,” Clemett said in a press release.
“Offering SIS clients with an appropriate balance of reliable and service-oriented supports provides them with the resources needed to improve their lives by reducing poverty, and promoting their progression to self-sufficiency.”
According to the report, while the Ministry typically assesses SIS applications within five business days around 90 per cent of the time, “it has yet to sufficiently identify, analyze and address a number of key barriers about SIS.”
These barriers include accessibility, a lack of streamlined client support and missed client appointments with Ministry planning and support specialists.
Clemett has also asked that the Ministry periodically analyze data about SIS client evictions and unpaid utility bills so that strategies to address them may be developed, offer timely case planning supports and schedule regular meetings with SIS clients to follow up on their individualized case plan goals.
Other recommendations include referring SIS clients to proper supports like employment services and counselling when appropriate and implementing further performance measures to assess SIS’s effectiveness.
“Offering SIS clients with an appropriate balance of reliable and service-oriented supports provides them with the resources needed to improve their lives by reducing poverty, and promoting their progression to self-sufficiency,” noted Clemett.
Social Services Minister Gene Makowsky said the Ministry is accepting Clemett’s recommendations and added that improvements to address them are already underway.
“We are adding ten new positions to improve call response times and expanding the number of computers and free wi-fi in our service centres. We are also working closely with community-based organizations to better serve clients,” said Makowsky.
“This includes further expanding the number of spaces to access money management and trusteeship supports as well as placing up to ten staff in community-based organizations to support clients with complex challenges where they are.”
NDP social services critic Meara Conway said the NDP wasn’t surprised by the issues raised in the auditor’s report. She said social workers, landlords, and SARM representatives have raised concerns about the SIS program, and called the program an “absolute failure across the board” that was increasing homelessness, not decreasing it.
“With folks living on the margins, you want to make sure that the supports you make available to them are as accessible as possible,” she said during media scrum. “The government themselves identified this in their poverty reduction report in 2016, the need to make supports as barrier free as possible. We have the provincial auditor saying this isn’t accessible.”
