Call wait times for income and disability assistance will improve: B.C. government

The province is promising improvements after an investigation found call wait times for income and disability assistance to be “chronically slow.”

The investigation by B.C.’s ombudsperson, Jay Chalke, was launched last year following a number of complaints about long wait times, disconnected calls and call time limits when trying to communicate with the ministry by phone.

“When a service delivery model is so burdensome that it effectively becomes inaccessible, the ministry ceases to adequately fulfil its responsibility to individuals and the public to help provide for the welfare of British Columbians in need,” read a section of the report.

The investigation resulted in nine recommendations for the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction.

The minister in charge, Shane Simpson, says the government is committed to improving the situation.

“The debate we’ll have is about how we get there and how we achieve the same objectives he has, and whether we do that in a slightly different fashion,” said Simpson.

WATCH: Young and disabled people suffering in B.C.

2:00 Young and disabled people suffering in B.C.

Out of the nine recommendations, Simpson said they will be acting on six of them, noting lack of resources as the reason for not following all nine.

“There’s a reporting requirement that he wanted to recommend. We’re looking at what resources it would take to meet that reporting requirement versus our ability to put the resources into improving service delivery.”

Some of the recommendations include reporting average wait times. It also suggests the ministry phase out the Tier 1 call-sweeping strategy, designed to shorten call wait times but ended up reducing service quality too.

“We accept the recommendation to phase out the use of the tier one model except in the most extraordinary of circumstances,” said Simpson.

One of the recommendations that will be placed on hold, for now, is increasing full-time staff from 183 to 220 people.