Recipients of spousal and child support in Nova Scotia owed $60 million:report

“As the outstanding payments increase on any file, that runs the risk of people waiting longer to get their payments, or not getting them at all,” he told a news conference.

The report says there are 15,065 cases in the program involving 13,824 children. It says in fiscal 2017-18, $54.7 million in payments was sent to recipients.

However, over the life of the program, which began in 1996, $63.4 million in outstanding payments has accumulated. Of that total, $15.3 million is associated with inactive accounts that currently aren’t being enforced because of the payors’ situations, such as being on social assistance or incarceration.

There was no comprehensive assessment of the risks associated with the relocation for a program, which was announced in 2012 and completed by June 2013.

The report says the program had to hire 24 new staff, while most of the approximately 35 supervisors and staff either retired or left for other jobs.

“Management told us the high turnover resulted in a major loss of knowledge and experience amongst enforcement staff,” the report states.

The report says management has indicated the program continues to face significant staff turnover and absenteeism, which has affected its collection of payments.

Caseloads are also high and range between 330 and 450 cases per enforcement staff — high numbers that are also affected by another problem, Pickup said.

“In the last three years the number of contacts and communications from recipients or payors to the workers have doubled … these folks are now dealing with up 48,000 client contacts,” said Pickup.

Pickup said his office reviewed 25 cases where enforcement action was needed to collect outstanding payments and found that in 21 cases appropriate action wasn’t taken, or was taken later than it should have been.

In one example, actions weren’t taken for 20 months on a case with an outstanding balance of $19,500, while in another a default letter was sent to someone owing $48,000, although no additional enforcement actions were taken until the recipient called five months later indicating payments still hadn’t been received.

The report says the program also lacked standard orientation for new staff and no training plan to guide them in their duties.

In its response, the Justice Department said it is working to improve the deficiencies highlighted in the report and has a current collection success rate of 87 per cent.

Justice Minister Mark Furey said arrears on active cases have been declining and are now at their lowest level in four years at around $49 million. The department said it had registered a 19 per cent increase in enforcement activities since March of last year at around 23,000.

“I’m confident the changes we’ve made will be seen to actually support families and ensure that we are actually making progress,” said Furey.

Meanwhile, Pickup’s report also pointed to “shocking” weaknesses in the Justice Department’s management of its four correctional facilities.

It says some staff were hired without criminal record checks and required training for response to mental illness and other issues wasn’t always taken by staff.

“Newly hired correctional officers did not receive the required training,” the report says.

“Only four of the 20 records we selected for correctional officers hired between 2013 and 2017 showed the officers had completed all required training.”

Over the 22-month period of the audit, the report says there were more than 600 assaults at provincial jails with 75 involving assaults on staff.

Pickup notes there is no comprehensive risk assessment for the jail system.

“Without a comprehensive risk assessment framework, it is harder for management to ensure all risks, including new and changing risks such as new methods of smuggling in drugs, have been identified and adequately managed.”

He said risks included violence against offenders and staff, drugs coming into the facilities, and mistaken releases.

Furey said work is underway to address all of the deficiencies found by the auditor general.

Pickup’s report also examined $45 million in grants administered by three provincial departments, and concludes while controls operated “reasonably well,” the departments aren’t following up to see what results have been achieved.

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Recipients of spousal and child support in Nova Scotia owed $60 million:report

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