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Benefit Programs: Resident Applications and Canada

benefit programs: Sign up for our Capital Dispatch newsletter, for all the latest politics news Half of the 16 million Canadians trying to reach an agent in a government call centre could not get through, the report states, according to CTV. People calling these departments include those applying for disability benefits, inquiring about their pensions or old age security, calling about the status of their citizenship or permanent resident applications and veterans or their families inquiring about benefit programs. The audit which looked at the call centres of Employment and Social Development Canada; Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada; and Veterans Affairs Canada was tabled in Parliament Tuesday morning as part of the spring package of auditor general reports. The audit found that, at both the department of Employment and Social Development and the department of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, instead of giving callers the option to wait to speak with an agent, millions of callers were redirected to an automated system, told to go to the website, or advised to call back another time. While Veterans Affairs did not bump any calls to an automated system, many waiting to speak with someone hung up before their call was taken. For those who called Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and were able to get through, the wait to speak with an agent was around 30 minutes. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.