'Overwhelmed' Toronto senior nearly evicted as a result of Service Canada error with Old Age benefit

Toronto senior says a serve Canada computer error nearly got her evicted

A Toronto senior is speech production come out after she was left without her Old Age Security benefit for months because of a simple error by Service Canada that left her in a dire situation: the wrong year was allegedly entered into its system.

Debbie Westfall says she applied for OAS in January, well before she turned 65 in March, because she knew she would be relying on it to get by. 

But many months and phone calls later, she was still without her benefit.

Still, Westfall and her case manager are speaking out because they say for someone like her, a delay in getting the benefit could be the difference between keeping a roof over her head and losing it.

Getting a hold of someone at Service Canada to solve the problem wasn't easy, she says.

"We phoned and phoned, and I was crying every day," she said.

Service Canada says there are a number of measures in place to ensure that seniors have support through the process, but one researcher who's studied issues with OAS says the system can often be difficult to navigate.

Max Kelly, an intensive case manager at Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre, worked with Westfall through the process. He says he made more than a dozen phone calls to reach Service Canada and spent hours on hold.

As Westfall neared the possibility of eviction, Kelly says he managed to access an emergency bridging program with the province of Ontario. But he's extremely frustrated about how much time and effort it took to solve the problem.

"It seems to highlight a basic problem-solving issue within the federal government," he said.

During one of his calls, Kelly says, one agent told him someone at Service Canada had entered the year 2035 instead of 2025.

And while many of the agents were sympathetic and said the situation was marked as urgent, Kelly says it wasn't rectified urgently enough. 

Westfall confirmed she received the payments she's been fighting for on Friday.

It also said it's committed to ensuring that all seniors receive the benefits to which they are entitled, and a number of measures are in place to identify and assist clients in accessing them.

"These measures include automatic enrolment to OAS for some clients, a dedicated Pensions Call Centre, direct outreach initiatives through partnerships with various community support organizations, a number of promotion and awareness initiatives including mail-out campaigns, and support in obtaining information or to apply for benefits at over 300 Service Canada Centres located across Canada," the agency said in a statement.

John Stapleton with the National Institute on Aging has researched issues with OAS and says Westfall's case points to a larger problem.

"The Old Age Security benefits are extremely complicated," he said. Stapleton says he has advocated for around 100 people who struggle with the system by reaching out to their members of Parliament or advising them to do so.

He says people originally from other countries sometimes struggle with missing acceptable documentation, especially if a country has broken infrastructure. People can have difficulty engaging with the system because they struggle with technology as older adults.

"This is a program that's had many Band-Aids put on it over the years. It's generally a very generous program, and it's a program that is looked up to by a lot of Canadians, but at the same time it has complexities that have been added on over the years," he said.

Kelly is relieved to know that Westfall will get her benefits soon, but hopes highlighting this issue provokes change.

"What's at stake is someone's well-being, health and dignity. It couldn't be more important."

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