Department mum on results of hunt for ‘missing’ child care benefit families

By Jordan Press, The Canadian Press

OTTAWA – The federal department in charge of the monthly universal child care benefit is refusing to say how many families who had yet to sign up for the benefit opted to do so after a nationwide push earlier this year.

The Conservatives launched a frantic campaign in the early part of the summer to have an estimated 200,000 families sign up for the payments, estimating they were going to miss out on the cash.

Employment Minister Pierre Poilievre crossed the country holding events where he and other Conservative MPs repeated the message that there were thousands of families missing out on the increased benefit payments.

The government started referring to these households as “missing families.”

This week, Employment and Social Development Canada, which oversees the monthly child care benefit program, wouldn’t say how many of those missing families had signed up on time for the increased payments, which started on July 20.

A department spokeswoman only said that the figure would be reported some time in the next few months, meaning the number won’t be available until after election day on Oct. 19. The department didn’t explain why it wasn’t releasing the number even though Poilievre had said they would be available by now.

The decision to not release the numbers appears to be linked to a practice during election campaigns where federal departments decline to put out information lest they be considered to be acting in for or against the electoral interests of any party.

The 200,000 figure is an estimate that uses the take-up rate of the child care benefit, which is reaches about 95.7 per cent of families, and estimating how many were missing from the 4.04 million families with children under age 18.

Media lines crafted for five for five cabinet ministers and two Conservative MPs who made seven different announcements on July 20 suggested each call the missing families “a problem.”

“While millions of families are waking up to this welcome news, an estimated 200,000 families in Canada missed out because they did not apply,” reads part of a background document prepared by the department and obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

“This represents potentially millions of dollars in unclaimed benefits; however, these families only need to apply to receive everything they are owed, including any retroactive payments.”

Finding the 200,000 missing families was a key aspect of a detailed social media plan crafted by the department in the months leading up to the payments landing in bank accounts and mailboxes.

That plan included sending out targeted emails, publishing government-generated stories on sites such as Buzzfeed to reach new audiences, and posting videos of Poilievre talking about the benefit on the department’s website.

“Increased usage of social media will help us target the 200,000 families with children that are eligible to receive money under the government’s proposed enhanced universal child care benefit, but are at risk of not receiving the benefit unless they apply,” reads part of the digital strategy document, also obtained under the Access to Information Act.

In July, the government increased the monthly payments to $160 from $100 for children five and under, and added a new $60 payment for children six to 17. The payments were retroactive to the start of the year, meaning some homes received a pre-election payment of up to $520 for a child five and under and $420 for children six to 17.

In all, the government doled out $2.98 billion in child care benefit payments last month to about 3.8 million families.

Follow @jpress on Twitter.

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