Strict eligibility criteria and low payout limit benefit’s usefulness
The surprisingly low user rate for the federal government’s new compassionate care benefit has left many critics questioning the effectiveness of the program.
“The use of it to date has been far less than what was anticipated,” said Linda Lysne, executive director of the Canadian Caregivers Coalition. “But we know so many people who need it so that’s a clear message that something isn’t working.”
Ottawa introduced the benefit two years ago, offered through the Employment Insurance program, so working Canadians would no longer have to choose between caring for a dying relative during their last few weeks or keeping their jobs. The program protects an employee’s job and pays a benefit of 55 per cent of the employee’s earnings up to $413 a week for six weeks.
However, Lysne said six weeks isn’t enough time. “It’s a really good beginning but it puts a lot of pressure on the family member, if they happen to qualify for it, to try to choose the right six weeks,” she said. “The reality is that the benefit needs to be for a significantly longer period.”
The government estimated 270,000 Canadians would be eligible for the program each year. This was based on the number of patients receiving palliative care in the United States, with adjustments made for the Canadian population, the program’s definition of family member and the number of EI-eligible workers. However, from April 2004 to March 2005, only 3,686 claims were approved.
Barriers to the benefit
There are several reasons for the discrepancy, according to Judi Varga-Toth, assistant director of the family network at the Canadian Policy Research Networks, which recently held a roundtable on caregiving policy in Canada.
Among the reasons is the requirement that an applicant be a full-time employee for the year prior to taking the leave. This criterion excludes many women, who are the majority of caregivers and who are often unemployed, self-employed or work part time. Other drawbacks of the program include the short length of the benefit, the low rate of coverage and the onerous application process, said Varga-Toth.
At the beginning of the month, following a scathing report released in December by the Health Council of Canada that said the program was “hobbled by tight beneficiary restrictions, unreasonable leave time limits and a lack of public awareness,” Prime Minister Paul Martin promised to extend the leave by two weeks, make part-time workers eligible and include family members other than parents, spouses and children (a change that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada proposed last November).
Increasing the leave to eight weeks is immaterial, said Varga-Toth. But increasing the eligibility would make a huge difference and expanding the definition of family member to anyone considered like family is a good start.
Low pay rate
In the workplace, HR professionals have found the benefit’s payout is the main obstacle.
At Convergys Customer Management Canada — Halifax, where 90 per cent of the 2,100 employees are customer service representatives who earn about $10 an hour, the majority of workers can’t afford the program’s two-week unpaid waiting period. “And they can’t afford to take the rate that they would be earning on the compassionate care leave,” said Scott Boulton, the call centre’s senior manager of human resources.
“We try to work with them as best we can, for those who can’t afford to take the benefit, to max out whatever vacation time they have or paid personal days that they have accrued so at least they’re getting some time off to care for an ailing family member. It’s not as much time as they would get on compassionate care but they earn their full wage.”
Providing this kind of supportive work environment is essential, but not all employers do so. “We would like to see employers looking at family-friendly policies in the workplace that would allow workers the flexibility to take time off to take care of someone who is in need of care,” said Varga-Toth.
Lack of awareness
The 14 employees who have taken advantage of the benefit at Convergys Halifax knew about the program before approaching their managers. In contrast, a general lack of awareness of the program is more apparent at Halifax’s Mount Saint Vincent University.
Of the university’s 400 employees, the five people who have taken advantage of the program only became aware of the benefit after talking to HR. After using up all their vacation, sick days and lieu time, these employees were relieved to find out about the program, said Terry Hearn, HR director at the university. “Employees don’t know about it,” said Hearn. “We’ve been educating them about it.”
In the past, the university informally helped employees who were caring for a family member. Hearn said he’s happy to have the official federal benefit as one more tool for his employees because as the population ages, more workers will have to care for an ailing loved one.
“The reality is that most of us have been, or will be, a caregiver in our lifetime,” said the Canadian Caregivers Coalition’s Lysne. Organizations, such as the coalition and other caregiving societies, must get the word out about the challenges facing caregivers and the supports available to them. “If we can do a good enough job in general public awareness, hopefully that will filter into the workplace.”
Offering training and skills development to help managers and supervisors understand what their employees are going through would also be helpful, said Varga-Toth. “A lot of people don’t understand what it might be like when you’re taking care of an elderly parent.”
Employers could offer training for employees around their role as a caregiver, such as specific caregiving training or time and stress management. “Productivity depends on healthy, not overstressed, employees,” said Varga-Toth. “Anything that you can do as an employer that will reduce stress levels will definitely affect your bottom line.”
“The use of it to date has been far less than what was anticipated,” said Linda Lysne, executive director of the Canadian Caregivers Coalition. “But we know so many people who need it so that’s a clear message that something isn’t working.”
Ottawa introduced the benefit two years ago, offered through the Employment Insurance program, so working Canadians would no longer have to choose between caring for a dying relative during their last few weeks or keeping their jobs. The program protects an employee’s job and pays a benefit of 55 per cent of the employee’s earnings up to $413 a week for six weeks.
However, Lysne said six weeks isn’t enough time. “It’s a really good beginning but it puts a lot of pressure on the family member, if they happen to qualify for it, to try to choose the right six weeks,” she said. “The reality is that the benefit needs to be for a significantly longer period.”
The government estimated 270,000 Canadians would be eligible for the program each year. This was based on the number of patients receiving palliative care in the United States, with adjustments made for the Canadian population, the program’s definition of family member and the number of EI-eligible workers. However, from April 2004 to March 2005, only 3,686 claims were approved.
Barriers to the benefit
There are several reasons for the discrepancy, according to Judi Varga-Toth, assistant director of the family network at the Canadian Policy Research Networks, which recently held a roundtable on caregiving policy in Canada.
Among the reasons is the requirement that an applicant be a full-time employee for the year prior to taking the leave. This criterion excludes many women, who are the majority of caregivers and who are often unemployed, self-employed or work part time. Other drawbacks of the program include the short length of the benefit, the low rate of coverage and the onerous application process, said Varga-Toth.
At the beginning of the month, following a scathing report released in December by the Health Council of Canada that said the program was “hobbled by tight beneficiary restrictions, unreasonable leave time limits and a lack of public awareness,” Prime Minister Paul Martin promised to extend the leave by two weeks, make part-time workers eligible and include family members other than parents, spouses and children (a change that Human Resources and Skills Development Canada proposed last November).
Increasing the leave to eight weeks is immaterial, said Varga-Toth. But increasing the eligibility would make a huge difference and expanding the definition of family member to anyone considered like family is a good start.
Low pay rate
In the workplace, HR professionals have found the benefit’s payout is the main obstacle.
At Convergys Customer Management Canada — Halifax, where 90 per cent of the 2,100 employees are customer service representatives who earn about $10 an hour, the majority of workers can’t afford the program’s two-week unpaid waiting period. “And they can’t afford to take the rate that they would be earning on the compassionate care leave,” said Scott Boulton, the call centre’s senior manager of human resources.
“We try to work with them as best we can, for those who can’t afford to take the benefit, to max out whatever vacation time they have or paid personal days that they have accrued so at least they’re getting some time off to care for an ailing family member. It’s not as much time as they would get on compassionate care but they earn their full wage.”
Providing this kind of supportive work environment is essential, but not all employers do so. “We would like to see employers looking at family-friendly policies in the workplace that would allow workers the flexibility to take time off to take care of someone who is in need of care,” said Varga-Toth.
Lack of awareness
The 14 employees who have taken advantage of the benefit at Convergys Halifax knew about the program before approaching their managers. In contrast, a general lack of awareness of the program is more apparent at Halifax’s Mount Saint Vincent University.
Of the university’s 400 employees, the five people who have taken advantage of the program only became aware of the benefit after talking to HR. After using up all their vacation, sick days and lieu time, these employees were relieved to find out about the program, said Terry Hearn, HR director at the university. “Employees don’t know about it,” said Hearn. “We’ve been educating them about it.”
In the past, the university informally helped employees who were caring for a family member. Hearn said he’s happy to have the official federal benefit as one more tool for his employees because as the population ages, more workers will have to care for an ailing loved one.
“The reality is that most of us have been, or will be, a caregiver in our lifetime,” said the Canadian Caregivers Coalition’s Lysne. Organizations, such as the coalition and other caregiving societies, must get the word out about the challenges facing caregivers and the supports available to them. “If we can do a good enough job in general public awareness, hopefully that will filter into the workplace.”
Offering training and skills development to help managers and supervisors understand what their employees are going through would also be helpful, said Varga-Toth. “A lot of people don’t understand what it might be like when you’re taking care of an elderly parent.”
Employers could offer training for employees around their role as a caregiver, such as specific caregiving training or time and stress management. “Productivity depends on healthy, not overstressed, employees,” said Varga-Toth. “Anything that you can do as an employer that will reduce stress levels will definitely affect your bottom line.”
