From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   CRA falling behind in ensuring vulnerable women, kids get tax benefits:   
   ombudsman : CRA SOTW   
      
   Taxpayers’ ombudsman Sherra Profit launched a probe Friday to study what   
   kind of effort the CRA has made to reach out to women living in shelters.    
      
   By Mia RabsonThe Canadian Press   
   Fri., July 14, 2017   
      
   OTTAWA—Canada’s taxpayers’ advocate says the Canada Revenue Agency   
   isn’t doing a good enough job ensuring women living in shelters with their   
   children are aware of and receiving benefit cheques.   
      
   Taxpayers’ ombudsman Sherra Profit launched a systemic examination Friday to   
   study what kind of effort the CRA has made to reach out to shelters regarding   
   benefits such as the Canada Child Benefit or the working income tax benefit.   
      
   Profit said she has received several complaints from shelters about the lack   
   of information from the CRA, but also a call from Revenue Minister Diane   
   Lebouthillier last fall regarding concerns she was hearing.   
      
   Lebouthillier asked the ombudsman’s office, which operates at arm’s length   
   from the CRA, to look into the matter.   
       
   Profit launched a preliminary examination which included conversations with   
   staff at about 25 shelters across Canada, which proved there did seem to be a   
   problem worth looking at in more depth.   
      
   Only a handful of the shelters said they’d had any contact from the CRA at   
   all and in those cases it was not directly with information to help clients   
   apply for and receive benefits. The information shelter workers could provide   
   to clients was largely    
   based on their own experience as parents or through their own efforts to   
   research what benefits are available.   
      
   The Canada Child Benefit alone is worth up to $6,400 for a child under six   
   each year.   
      
   “Access to information about benefits is crucial especially when somebody is   
   in a situation where they’re needing use of the shelter,” said Profit in   
   an interview with The Canadian Press.   
      
   “They’re in that situation where they don’t have access to the resources   
   they normally would have access to, especially if the information is just   
   online. We really want to make sure that those people who are in a vulnerable   
   situation already are    
   not made further vulnerable by not being able to access the information the   
   CRA has available to help them get those benefits that may assist them with   
   their insecure and vulnerable situation.”   
      
   The study will include not just emergency shelters for women and kids fleeing   
   domestic violence, but also homeless shelters or any kind of temporary   
   accommodation to help someone who suddenly finds they don’t have a roof over   
   their head.   
      
   There are over 600 emergency shelters for abused women in Canada and   
   approximately 400 emergency homeless shelters.   
      
   Profit said the work will not be limited to women’s shelters because she   
   wants to understand how anyone experiencing the need of a shelter, be they a   
   man, woman or child, has access to information about benefits that may help   
   them.   
      
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   Visit the CRA SOTW Library at http://canada.revenue.agency.angelfire.com    
      
   ------------------------------------------------------------    
   Alan Baggett - http://www.taxcollectorsbible.com/ - Tax Collector's Bible   
      
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