People calling British Columbia’s Ministry of Social Development and Social Innovation may have to hold the line.
A heavy caseload has caused major delays to the phone service of the ministry responsible for helping people with disabilities.
Information from a previously released freedom of information report shows caller wait times to the ministry to have almost octupled from 2013 to 2014.
Yes, octupled.
When asked to describe the service provided by the ministry, disabled Vancouver resident Michael Dugger said, “Honestly? It’s a nightmare.”
Dugger was born with corneal dystrophy, a disorder that has left him partially blind. He frequently calls the ministry to discuss his Persons With Disabilities assistance. In January 2013, average wait times were as low as four minutes. Wait times then skyrocketed to 34 minutes by December 2014.
The numbers were tracked by the ministry after an audit was done in May, 2014. The deputy auditor general, Russ Jones, told that the ministry that they needed to improve its data collection. The audit also showed that there were major barriers to accessibility of the ministry’s disability assistance services.
The increase in average waiting times was due to a rise in the number of callers, said Patricia Boyle, assistant to the department’s deputy minister
According to Boyle there were 13 times more calls to the ministry in 2014 than in 2013. Boyle also said that the most recent data shows a large improvement as of January 2015.
The ministry also implemented a “call-back” option, so that callers will not have to wait on the phone. Boyle said wait times have gone down to about 10 minutes and dropped as low as seven minutes last week. She provided no data to confirm this and this is not what Dugger experienced.
Dugger called the ministry on March 18. He said he waited half an hour before the ministry told him that they would call him back in yet another hour. He said that this happens frequently.
“A couple of times they just hung up on me and said I was calling them too much,” he said.
Dugger lives day to day on social funding from the government. He claimed that he has had missed rent often on account of not having received his cheque on time.
“They can’t just keep treating me this way.”
When told how Dugger had been purposefully disconnected on several occasions and then asked why this would be, Boyle said she had never heard of any such incident.
But Dugger is not the only client to be “disconnected” while on the phone with a ministry representative.
In a recent committee meeting, the MLA of Nelson- Creston the Michelle Mungal, asked the minister of Social Development and Social Innovation for reports of clients who had been hung up on after waiting 11 minutes on the phone.
The government created My Self Serve to improve wait times. The online service allows people seeking to review their assistance to connect with the ministry instantaneously. The service also allows people to access the ministry round the clock.
Three years ago Dugger was diagnosed with glaucoma, hampering his ability to see the website.
“I’m losing my eyesight. So that’s no good for me” Dugger said. “And I don’t have time to just be waiting on the phone. I have other problems.”