Keeping people safe and justice moving

I would like to provide an update on Social Security Tribunal (Tribunal) operations during the COVID-19 pandemic for the period of March 16 to May 15, 2020.

Caseload and output

Since March 16, 2020, when physical distancing measures were put in place, the Tribunal has seen a decrease in the number of appeals filed across all three appeal streams. We received and granted an increased number of adjournment requests due to the unusual circumstances.

We continued to hear cases when possible. Overall, we operated at a slightly reduced capacity during the lockdown.

Here is a comparison of our operations in the 2 months before the lockdown and the past 2 months:

• Appeals filed in the 2 months before the pandemic: 1,219
• Appeals filed in the 2 months since the pandemic began: 756
• Hearings held in the 2 months before the pandemic: 909
• Hearings held in the 2 months since the pandemic began: 560
• Decisions sent in the 2 months before the pandemic: 1,151
• Decisions sent in the 2 months since the pandemic began: 855

How the Tribunal responded to the lockdown

• The Tribunal was relatively well positioned to cope with the change in operations that social distancing requires. We are an electronic tribunal and our members have always worked from their homes across Canada. By the end of April, all our employees had the ability to work from home.
• We contacted all appellants who had an in-person hearing or videoconference hearing at a Service Canada location and offered them a teleconference hearing to avoid delays. In May, we introduced Zoom as an option for all videoconference hearings. Appellants who preferred an in-person hearing had their appeals adjourned.
• We updated our website daily to provide information on how to communicate with us. We reached out to stakeholders to let appellants know that we would be flexible with deadlines.
• Last week, we launched a suite of new forms to further enable electronic communication.
• Some appellants cannot or choose not to communicate electronically. We have been able to continue to process these files by:
  • Retrieving mail from our mailroom on a weekly basis; and
  • Setting up staff at home with printers and courier accounts to send outgoing mail.
• We improvised our call centre operations, as staff work from home. We return phone calls within 1 hour, and urgent matters are immediately forwarded to the registry for priority action.

Looking ahead

If the level of appeals continues at the current pace, or returns to pre-pandemic levels, we do not expect to develop a backlog of cases. We will continue to figure out creative solutions, as we learn to live within the constraints that health and safety require. Our priority remains delivering justice that is simple, quick and fair.

If you have suggestions for us on how we can better achieve our mandate in this time, please do not hesitate to communicate with us.