This morning on Brass Tacks mothers are complaining again, including a mention that the office staff will not give information over the phone because it is confidential. Fair enough. I am a Canada Pension Plan pensioner, pension information too is confidential, but Canada is a big place, and some of their pensioners live in Barbados, and Argentina and Autralia. It would be unreasonable to expect people who receive benefits to travel thousands of miles in order to ask a question. So this is what they do and this is what the government can do for the mothers.

The office which deals with this matter has a file on each parent, which likely already includes name, address, date of birth, ID number, names of the children etc. Why not ask the mothers to create a password and add that password to her file. When she calls to find out whether her children's money is available, as long as she provides her information and her own password then the government officer can tell her "yes" the money is here, or "no" the money is nor here. This reduces crowding in the office, and it saves the mothers paying up to $8 per time in bus fare. To implement wold cost little or nothing. A simple low tech, no money solution.

Submitted by Juanita Lynch