From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency still subjecting taxpayers to 'humiliating, frustrating'   
   benefit review process: report  :CRA SOTW   
      
    'My accountant told me I should basically show up at a CRA office with all my   
   documents and just start crying'   
       
      
   Karina Roman • CBC News •   
      
   The Canada Revenue Agency says it has made changes to how it conducts benefit   
   reviews in the wake of CBC stories describing the problems faced by single   
   parents in the process — and after the agency's own focus group study found   
   the reviews to be "   
   overwhelming," "frustrating" and "humiliating."   
      
   But Canadian taxpayers who spoke to the CBC about their current battles with   
   the CRA say the changes the agency has made don't go far enough and have made   
   no difference to their experiences so far.   
      
   "My accountant told me I should basically show up at a CRA office with all my   
   documents and just start crying," said Roberta Bouchard, a single mother of   
   two teens in Ottawa. She pointed out that there are no CRA client offices in   
   Ottawa.   
      
   Bouchard has been battling the agency since last December to prove that she is   
   separated from her husband and that her children live with her. Being able to   
   prove those things would establish her eligibility for the Canada Child   
   Benefit and determine how    
   much she can receive.     
      
   Every year, the CRA sends about 350,000 Canadians a letter letting them know   
   their eligibility for benefits is being reviewed.   
      
   In the wake of CBC stories last December that led to the CRA apologizing to   
   single parents who felt targeted by the agency over benefits, the agency   
   commissioned a focus group to study the problem.   
      
   Pollara Strategic Insights interviewed 39 people in March who saw their   
   benefits stopped by the CRA, then eventually reinstated. The study looked at   
   the problems these people experienced with the benefits validation process.   
      
   The focus group's findings were just made public — and they echo what CBC   
   reported in December.   
      
   Many people told the focus group they never received the initial review letter   
   in time to reply, and lost their benefits as a result.   
      
   'Anxiety, humiliation, anger'   
   Some also reported the agency didn't give them enough time to gather the   
   necessary proof, and that the documentation the CRA required was too difficult   
   to put together.   
      
   Overall, people reported finding the process overwhelming and feeling   
   "anxiety, humiliation and anger" over what they went through.   
      
   "Many were embarrassed that they would have to go to the school, doctor,   
   employer, landlord, etc. and explain their marriage and financial situation,"   
   the report said.   
      
   Many also told the focus group they're still frustrated by their inability to   
   get anyone from CRA on the phone.   
      
   Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier did not respond to a request   
   for an interview, but in an email, the department said changes have been made:   
       
   Bouchard said that if any of that is true, it hasn't helped her.   
   She has stacks of paper on her dining room table that include copies of all   
   the documents she has sent to the CRA: her lease agreement, bills in her name,   
   official letters from her kids' school and attestations from people on an   
   approved list of third-   
   party professionals who can vouch for her.   
      
   "If you really want to know I'm a single mom, just come park outside my house   
   for a couple of days. It will be quite obvious," she said.   
      
   The paper piles also include all the contradictory letters she has received   
   from the agency — some that say she owes the government thousands of   
   dollars, others that say the government owes her money. The last one she got   
   says she owes more than $9,000    
   — a prospect she described as "terrifying."   
      
   'The problems ... appear to be getting worse'   
   Paul Millar, a single dad of two sons in Kitimat, B.C., said he's been   
   fighting the CRA since March over more than $2,000 in child benefit payments   
   that he said he needs to pay his bills.   
      
   "I've had my hydro disconnected twice. I have a disconnection notice right now   
   on my table," he said, adding that attempts to sort it out over the phone with   
   the CRA have been fruitless.   
      
   "I just kept getting the runaround. 'Oh we'll look into it, we'll look into   
   it.' I've been getting 'we'll look into it' for so long that I've stopped   
   phoning. They put up all this red tape so you get frustrated and give up."   
      
   Andrea Olfert is a single mom in Saskatoon with five children under the age of   
   12. She is one of the many Canadians who never received the first review   
   letter and subsequently lost their benefits.   
      
   "And they said I owed them more than $18,000," she said.   
       
   She got her benefits back and her bill reversed — but not until she was able   
   to get a dedicated CRA case worker who made the unusual decision to allow   
   Olfert's friends to give telephone interviews attesting to her separated   
   status.   
      
   Driven by an Auditor General's report of a year ago showing major problems   
   with the CRA's call centre and the accuracy of the information the CRA was   
   providing to taxpayers — and by concerns that Canada continues to let big   
   tax cheats hide money in tax    
   havens — some opposition MPs have been calling on the government to make   
   major changes to the way the CRA conducts itself and who it goes after.   
      
   But despite the changes the CRA insists it has made, and promises by the   
   minister to make the CRA client-focused and friendlier, MPs have told CBC that   
   helping constituents deal with the CRA is still a major part of their work.   
      
   "The problems are systemic, appear to be getting worse, not better from   
   discussions I've had with countless tax professionals across Canada and it's   
   time for action," said Pat Kelly the Conservative critic for the CRA.   
      
   "There is pressure to collect and the lowest hanging fruit is, in many cases,   
   the most vulnerable Canadians."   
      
   The CRA said case reviews sometimes result in increased benefits. The agency   
   also said a federal program to encourage non-filers to file returns led to   
   more than $32 million in benefits being paid out last fiscal year.   
      
   But the agency did not answer questions about how much revenue is clawed back   
   every year through the agency's reduction or elimination of benefits following   
   a review.   
      
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