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The Canadian Digital Service (CDS) is partnering with Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) to improve the delivery of the Canada Pension Plan Disability (CPPD) program.

The team conducted Discovery research over a period of twelve weeks from May to July, 2019 to identify how the CPPD service could be improved to alleviate the biggest challenges people face when applying for benefits and processing applications. After interviewing applicants and processing staff and mapping out existing service journeys, the team recommended to focus on the goal of reducing the time it takes to make the right decision so that applicants can get the support they need and can plan their lives accordingly.

Following this goal and the research findings, this partnership is exploring the following hypothesis in Alpha:

Shifting the onus of answering health-related questions from the applicant to the medical professional, and asking medical professionals more direct questions through expedited processes will reduce development casework, processing times, and the overwhelming nature of the application.

The team will continue to conduct research and start to build prototypes in Alpha to test this hypothesis and ensure whatever we build meets people’s needs. This site will track our progress over the Alpha phase, taking place in fall 2019.