Canada Child Benefit Program: 2022-2023 Satisfaction Survey

Canada Child Benefit Program: 2022-2023 Satisfaction Survey

Executive Summary

Prepared for the Canada Revenue Agency by Nanos Research

July 2023

This publication may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes only. Prior written permission must be obtained from the Canada Revenue Agency. For more information on this report, please contact the Canada Revenue Agency at: cra-arc.media@cra-arc.gc.ca.

Catalogue Number

Rv4-131/2023E-PDF

International Standard Book Number (ISBN):

978-0-660-67873-3

Related Publication (Registration Number: POR-113-22)

Catalogue Number: Rv4-131/2023F-PDF (Rapport finale, français)

International Standard Book Number (ISBN): 978-0-660-67874-0

Executive summary

A. Background and objectives

Canada Revenue Agency provides a number of benefit plans to Canadians which serve a vast array of purposes. In addition, the CRA recognizes the value of eliciting feedback from their clients and providing Canadians with a feedback platform to the CRA, as well as provide those benefit programs with data to help support continual improvement of services.

One of these programs is the Canada Child Benefit (CCB), which is a tax free monthly payment made to eligible families that helps them with the cost of raising a child under 18 years of age. The CCB may also include the child disability benefit and related provincial and territorial programs. Previously the CRA has conducted surveys in the fall targeting CCB recipients (both regular and first-time recipients) and GST/HST credit recipients. The study has changed a number of times through the years but the overarching research objective was always to gauge client awareness and satisfaction with program initiatives and deliverables, as well as provide data for a client satisfaction KPI.

There are currently about 3.46 million CCB recipients across Canada, with an estimated 12% of Canadians 18 years of age and older being direct recipients and about one per cent being first-time recipients.

To that end, the CRA retained Nanos Research to conduct a survey among current, direct recipients of the CCB to measure their awareness and satisfaction with the program's initiatives and deliverables.

CRA will utilize the research findings to help the various program areas to better understand benefit and credit clients and to improve their programs, services and communications and will be used to populate results against a 'client satisfaction' indicator included in CRA performance reports.

The specific research objectives were as follows:

Assess client awareness and satisfaction
Assess satisfaction with various stages and components of the program process;
Gauge client awareness of various program initiatives and deliverables; and,
Understand the differences between long-time and first-time recipients where feasible.

The purpose of this iteration of the study is to benchmark client satisfaction with the overall process, from application to receipt of the CCB payments. The survey provided an opportunity for program recipients to offer feedback in terms of their overall satisfaction with the program, their satisfaction at various stages and components of the process and evaluations of specific aspects of program delivery and service, as defined by the program area.

B. Methodology

The survey is comprised of 525 Canadians, 18 years of age and older who are direct recipients of the Canada Child Benefit.

In previous years this survey was conducted by telephone using a list of CCB recipients provided by the CRA, however, for this iteration of the survey the CRA and Nanos chose to execute this research via a random hybrid telephone and online survey with a reduced sample size. The change in methodology means that the data is not directly comparable to the previous waves of the survey and this wave should be considered a new benchmark moving forward.

The survey sample was drawn from two sources:

The Nanos Probability Panel, which contains about 50,000 Canadians who were randomly recruited to join the panel by land- and cell-lines with live agents.
Random recruitment by land-and cell-lines and administered the survey online.

The resulting sample contains individuals who were all randomly recruited by telephone, thus allowing a margin of error to be associated with the research. All respondents self-administered the survey online. The margin of error for a random survey of 525 individuals is plus or minus 4.3 percentage points, nineteen times out of twenty.

The fieldwork was conducted between March 30^th and June 25^th, 2023. The survey programming was tested extensively online in both languages. Additional details on the methodology and the rate of participation can be found in Appendix A and the research instruments are provided in Appendix B.

C. Contract value

The contract value was $124,912.46 (HST included).

Supplier name: Nanos Research

PWGSC contract number: CW 2268404

Original contract date: 2023-12-21

For more information, contact the Canada Revenue Agency at cra-arc.media@cra-arc.gc.ca.

D. Political neutrality statement and contact information

This certification is to be submitted with the final report submitted to the Project Authority.

I hereby certify, as a Representative of Nanos Research, that the deliverables fully comply with the Government of Canada political neutrality requirements outlined in the Government of Canada's Policy on Communications and Federal Identity and Directive on the Management of Communications. Specifically, the deliverables do not include information on electoral voting intentions, political party preferences, party standings with the electorate, or ratings of the performance of a political party or its leaders.

Nik Nanos
Chief Data Scientist and President
Nanos Research
nik@nanos.co
(613) 234-4666 x237

E. Key findings

Satisfaction with CCB Services: Overall and on Specific Service Attributes and Processes

The CRA receives a high overall satisfaction rating on the overall experience with the CCB, and a majority of recipients are also satisfied with various key service attributes and processes of the CCB. Three in four CCB recipients say they are very or somewhat satisfied with the overall experience of the CCB, including the application, notice and receipt of payments (75%) with 42% who are very satisfied. Of note, while high levels of satisfaction cut across all provinces and regions, overall satisfaction is comparatively higher among recipients in Quebec (86%) than recipients in Ontario (70%) and the Prairies (70%).

In terms of the key service attributes and processes, recipients remain more likely to be satisfied rather than dissatisfied. A majority of first-time CCB recipients say they are very or somewhat satisfied (69%)(note this a subset of 39 respondents) with the time it took them to get their first CCB payment, and a similar proportion of all recipients are satisfied with the accuracy of the information on their most recent CCB notice. Once more, high satisfaction levels cut across all provinces/regions, however satisfaction with the accuracy of the information on their last notice is comparatively lower among residents of Ontario (64%) than residents of Quebec (80%).

Overall, CCB recipients who report having contacted the CRA about the benefit in the past 12 months report high levels of satisfaction regarding various aspects of the experience, with the highest net satisfaction score given to the professionalism of the CRA agent (for those who contacted by telephone)(92%) and the safeguards that were in place to protect their personal and business information (80%). The highest proportion of net dissatisfaction is observed for how quickly their issue was resolved (28% net dissatisfied).

Key Service Attribute	NET Satisfied	NET Dissatisfied
The professionalism that the CRA agent showed (n=52)**	92%	4%
The safeguards that were in place to protect your personal and business information (n=64)***	80%	5%
Overall experience with CCB, including the application, notices, receipt of payments	75%	5%
The accuracy of the response you received (n=64)***	75%	16%
The way the CRA agent resolved your issue (n=52)**	73%	21%
The time it took to get your first CCB payment (n=39)*	69%	13%
The accuracy of the information on the last CCB notice which was used to calculate your benefit (n=525)	67%	8%
How quickly your issue was resolved (n=64)***	63%	28%

***Asked of a sub-set of respondents – those who have contacted CRA about CCB services in the last 12 months

Just over one in ten CCB recipients report they contacted the CRA about their benefit in the last 12 months, and among those who did, the most common reported reason was related to an update to their file (such as a change or address, marital status or custody arrangement)(48%) or about their application (22%) or issuance of payment (22%). Other reasons for contact were about a policy, ruling or interpretation (13%), a service complaint (8%), an appeal (5%) or taxes/their tax return (5%).

Telephone is the primary method of contact for recipients (81%), followed by one in three who report having contacted the CRA online (34%) and just under one in ten who report contacting the CRA by mail (9%).

Overall CCB recipients who report having contacted the CRA about the benefit in the last 12 months say it was easy to access CCB services (63% very or somewhat easy), while just over one in four found it to be difficult (28% very or somewhat difficult).

Three in four CCB recipients say the benefit has at least a moderate impact (score of 4-6 out of 10)(mean score of 6.6 on average) on their monthly budget, with close to three in five recipients who say the impact is significant (57%), while one in four say the benefit has little to no impact on their monthly budget (23%). These findings are consistent across all provinces/regions, although of note, recipients in Quebec give this a higher mean impact score (7.1 out of 10) than recipients in Ontario (6.3 out of 10).

Recipients most often report becoming aware of the CCB from hospital or birthing centre staff (27%) or from a friend of family member (19%). Other sources mentioned were the CRA website (8%), a professional such as an accountant (7%) or via mail from the CRA (6%), as well as from their provincial social services office (2%). Close to two in ten (19%) say they do not remember where they first heard of it.

CCB recipients are more likely to be aware rather than not aware of various online services related to managing the CCB, with awareness being the highest in terms of their ability to update their personal information for benefit and credit purposes through MyAccount (79%).

This is followed by about three in five each who are also aware they can use the MyBenefits app to get a quick view of their benefit and credit payment details and their eligibility (62%) and that they can pay any CCB balances owned using the CRA My Payment service online or through online banking (59%).

Recipients in Ontario (64%) and the Prairies (67%) are more likely to report being aware that they can use the My Benefits app to get a quick view of their details than recipients in Quebec (46%).

Almost 19 in 20 CCB recipients report they are aware that they and their spouse or common-law partner must file a tax return every year to continue receiving CCB payments (93%), while awareness is lower regarding the CCB amount being raised yearly to keep up with the cost of living (39% aware vs 59% unaware).

Responding CCB recipients most often say they would apply for the CCB at the hospital on the provincial birth registration (39%) or online using the My Account portal (39%) if they were to apply again for another child. Just three per cent say they would apply by paper using Form RC66.