Nearly four years after Canada implemented its pandemic emergency benefit programs, some beneficiaries are only now realizing they were You are not eligible and must pay thousands of dollars Back to the government.
“To be honest, I’m struggling,” Toronto resident Michael Madden told CTV News Toronto in an interview last week. “I have a lot of bills and with the cost of living, it’s very difficult to manage.”
Madden is among many Canadians who have been asked to return benefits dating back to the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
Between March and October 2020, the federal government The government paid almost $211 billion in emergency benefits to 8.9 million Canadians.. However, nearly $5 billion of that funding was distributed to ineligible applicants, an auditor general report later revealed.
For Madden, confusion came when additional programs were introduced.
At the end of 2020, the CRA ended the Initial Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), was always intended as a temporary aid and instead introduced several more specific applications. What most Canadians knew as CERB became CRB, the Canadian Response Benefit – a program that was largely similar but allowed applicants to report more of their own income.
At the time, Madden was working as a full-time administrative assistant, but the onset of the pandemic dramatically reduced her office’s client base and, in turn, her hours.
“I was able to apply for the full $14,000 from CERB,” Madden said. “But then when CRB launched, I assumed I qualified for that too because they said it was for technology or electrical workers, so I applied.”
He was approved for $4,000 through the CRB, a sum he is now being asked to repay, although he doesn’t believe he should.
“I think the government should take responsibility and say, you know what? We made a mistake,” she said.
The Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) home page can be seen above. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Giordano Ciampini
He Canadian Emergency Business Account (CEBA) It also became available in late 2020. Through CEBA, Canadian business owners could apply for up to $40,000 in unamortized loans.
The CRA requested that those loans be repaid in December 2023, with an extended deadline to January 18, 2024. Any outstanding balance will “likely” be allocated to collections. it says on its website.
Commercial designer Theo Westpark has owned and operated her own business in North York since 1996, but with the pandemic came a drop in clientele: demand for renovation projects had plummeted, and with it, her sales.
Westpark applied for CEBA and was granted the maximum loan of $40,000.
Now, three years later, they are asking him to pay it back, but the pandemic and the economy have left him little room to make those payments.
“When they asked me to pay it back, I had about $6,000 saved, a far cry from the $40,000 needed,” Westparks said.
He went to the Royal Bank of Canada, where he said he had been a customer for more than 35 years, and asked for a loan.
“They refused,” he said.
Meanwhile, Westpark had to close its physical office space and shift to working from home to cut costs.
“There are no two ways to do it, I don’t think [the CRA is] doing anything, right now, to offer an alternative solution,” he said.
“Many people and businesses will suffer from this and many doors will close.”
READ MORE: ‘How could they allow this?’ Many Canadians are frustrated with the CERB experience
Toronto Tax Lawyer David Rotfleisch said he sees, on average, two to three people a week who have been asked to repay their emergency benefits.
“I wouldn’t say everyone is necessarily surprised,” Rotfleisch said.
Most people find out they owe the government as part of an audit process, Rotfleisch said. The CRA is not likely to dedicate a large number of auditors to the reimbursement of emergency benefits, since the totals are “relatively low.”
“That means it will take time for a CRA to audit all recipients. I suspect that is their goal,” she said.
Among the people Rotfleisch has dealt with, there is variety as to why they are asked to pay.
“The rules [to apply] They were relatively complex,” he explained. “In many cases, people applied and thought they qualified, but they didn’t. In other cases, the CRA audit results are unreasonable or incorrect. And there are also cases where taxpayers applied knowing they probably didn’t qualify.”
If you have been asked to repay emergency benefits, Rotfleisch said the first thing you should do is determine whether or not the CRA denial is correct.
If you have reason to believe that the Redetermination Notice is incorrect, you may challenge him. You will need to have your CRA account information and any relevant documentation on hand, including your proof of eligibility.
If the notice is accurate, payments can be made online, by mail, or in person. The CRA is also recovering payments by garnishing people’s tax returns, a process that happens automatically and has caught some taxpayers, like Madden, off guard.
“In fact, I would ask the government to reconsider doing that and instead work with people to come up with payment agreements,” Madden said.
“People have that money and they need it.”