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The update report is out now
Most people calling the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction for income and disability assistance are still waiting far longer than the government’s own service standards allow, according to a new update from the BC Ombudsperson, which finds that the core problems identified eight years ago have not been resolved.
The update follows the Ombudsperson’s 2018 systemic investigation, Holding Pattern: Call wait times for income and disability assistance, which found that prolonged delays in reaching the ministry by phone created barriers to accessing essential services.
Between 2022 and 2024, ministry data shows that only about 13 per cent of calls were answered within 10 minutes on average, despite the government having set a service standard requiring 80 per cent of calls to be answered within that timeframe. In several months over the past two years, as few as five per cent of calls were answered within 10 minutes, with some days seeing average wait times exceed an hour.
“Eight years after my office first raised concerns, most callers are still waiting far too long to reach this critically important service,” said BC Ombudsperson Jay Chalke. “At this rate, it will be decades before the ministry meets its own service standards.”
The Ombudsperson’s update acknowledges steps the ministry has taken to improve access, including the introduction of a call-back option and other service changes intended to reduce pressure on the call centre. However, the report finds that staffing levels and call volumes continue to prevent sustained improvement, that the ministry has consistently failed to meet its own service standards, and that there is no consistent trend toward meeting those standards in the future.
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Source: BC Ombudsperson, Canada
