Benefits Wayfinder Tool Success: Transforming How Users Discover and Access Life-Changing Benefits

Income benefits are a crucial lifeline for many people living in Canada yet, each year, over $1.7 billion dollars in income-boosting government benefits go unclaimed in Canada. To help eligible people to increase their income and build financial stability, Prosper Canada developed and launched the Benefits Wayfinder in January 2022 – an easy-to-use, online, benefit screening tool. Since then, we have trained 4,419 frontline staff from 911 organizations to use the tool to help service users with low incomes to access income benefits and tax credits to boost their income and/or reduce their expenses.

To ensure the Benefits Wayfinder is hitting the mark and identify ways it can be improved, Prosper Canada commissioned an independent longitudinal evaluation by Taylor Newbury Consulting. Using a mixed methods approach, evaluators initially surveyed 525 users – 134 people who used the tool with help from a community agency (agency users) and 390 community users who independently accessed the tool on our website. Follow-up surveys were conducted at 6 and 12 months, as well as semi-structured interviews with 10 agency and 12 community users, and 10 focus groups with agency staff who use the Benefits Wayfinder as part of their services.

The resulting findings showed a strong positive impact for both individual users and agency staff using the tool:

• 93% of community users and 85% of agency users who completed the baseline survey agreed that the Benefits Wayfinder was user friendly and easy to navigate.
• 86% of users applied to at least one financial benefit recommended by the Benefits Wayfinder 12 months after first using the tool
• 43% of users said that they would not have applied to these benefits without the Benefits Wayfinder recommendation. 
• 82% of users reported it increased their knowledge about financial benefits and these users applied to more benefits.
• 80% of users said that the Benefits Wayfinder increased their knowledge about the importance of filing their taxes.
• 94% of social service organizations were still using the Benefits Wayfinder one year after they were trained to do so.

Members of Indigenous, racialized, and newcomer communities benefitted most from using the Benefits Wayfinder:

• Proportionally, more BIPOC users reported increased knowledge about financial benefit eligibility (83%) and increased confidence about applying for benefits (77%) than white users (71% and 60% respectively).

• A higher proportion of Indigenous users reported increased knowledge about the importance of tax filing (93%) and increased knowledge of community services (93%) than any other group (71% and 70% respectively).
• A higher proportion of immigrants to Canada reported increased benefit literacy than individuals born in Canada:
  • 89% reported increased knowledge about financial benefit eligibility compared to 75% of those born in Canada
  • 85% reported increased confidence about applying for benefits compared to 61% of those born in Canada
  • 80% reported increased knowledge about the importance of tax filing compared to 61% of those born in Canada
  • 76% reported increased knowledge of community services compared to 65% of those born in Canada.

The evaluators found that those who benefit most from using the Benefits Wayfinder are:

• Individuals who are not up to date on their taxes, but are open to tax filing.
• Newcomers trying to understand the social structure in Canada.
• Individuals not in crisis who are able to navigate the Benefits Wayfinder website on their own; however, a baseline level of literacy, patience, and a critical eye for details are required.

Community agencies are important Benefits Wayfinder users, using the tool in diverse ways:

• Financial empowerment organizations use the Benefits Wayfinder as resource to stay up to date on available benefits and related eligibility criteria and processes.
• Organizations that lack the time or expertise to offer benefit assistance but see its value, share the Benefits Wayfinder with their clients to explore on their own.
• Organizations that are newer to benefit navigation, or have new staff, use the Benefits Wayfinder to support and train their staff.

Despite these successes, there are limitations to what the Benefits Wayfinder alone can do when it comes to helping people in crisis and enabling users to overcome major structural and institutional and personal barriers. Barriers the Benefits Wayfinder alone cannot overcome include:

• The complexity of disability benefit application processes for individuals with mental health challenges.
• Difficulty accessing doctors for to complete assessments for disability benefits.
• Confusion about which benefits users were actually eligible for (benefits recommended by the Benefits Wayfinder did not always match individual eligibility).
• Some users’ need for one-to-one support to complete benefit application processes.
• Applying for benefits is exhausting, overwhelming, and can be retraumatizing for some people.

In conclusion, our evaluation findings highlight the need for and effectiveness of the Benefits Wayfinder in providing clear and understandable information about financial benefits for people with low incomes. It is a highly valued and effective tool for community service providers and individuals trying to successfully navigate our complex benefit systems, but one-to-one support is still necessary for many Canadians if they are to successfully access the income supports they are eligible for.