In our first article in this three-part series, we argued that the Canada Revenue Agency’s (CRA) Non-filer Benefits Letter Campaign was, at best, seriously underperforming on its intent, to get non-filers to file their outstanding returns.

In our second article, we look at what else the CRA may be doing to identify non-filers.  A February 2022 report from the Auditor General of Canada to Parliament (AG) entitled “Access to Benefits for Hard-to-Reach Populations” sheds further light on this question.  The report looks at the work of Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) in administering the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) and the Canada Learning Bond (CLB), and the work of the CRA in administering the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) and the Canada Workers Benefit (CWB).

The AG focused on how well ESDC and the CRA are doing in getting these benefits to all residents who are eligible to receive them, what it calls the coverage rate.  Since the filing of a return is a condition for obtaining (CWB) or maintaining (GIS and CCB) the benefit, or again for establishing eligibility for the benefit (CLB), the CRA’s and ESDC’s work on the take-up gap, or the percentage of eligible residents who are not benefit recipients can inform the discussion about non-filers.

The AG found that “[ESDC and CRA] estimates overstated the take-up of benefits because they did not always account for people who had not filed tax returns, which are required to access most benefits.”  The AG also found that the CRA and ESDC “did not have a complete estimate of the overall take-up rates of the selected benefits.  Nor did they know the take-up rates of specific hard-to-reach populations known to experience barriers to accessing benefits.”  What was the CRA doing to improve its understanding of the size of the gap between eligible and actual benefit coverage?  The AG found that “[n]o tangible progress had yet been achieved in data collection, measurement, or analysis of benefit take-up.”

Finally, this article examines the relevance of the AG’s report to the CVITP.  CVITP host organizations know that one of the key barriers to filing a return is the lack of free return preparation services.  This is why these organizations offer CVITP services: they understand that, for the clients they serve (many of whom fall squarely within the hard-to-reach populations identified by the AG), providing this free service is critical to obtaining federal and provincial or territorial benefits which contribute toward reducing income-based poverty.

The first two articles in this series set the stage for what more the CRA could be doing to reach non-filers, the subject of the third and final article.