Some citizens currently receiving the CERB benefit were shocked and alarmed to receive news this week that they “will not receive a (CERB) payment when you complete your next report”.
The reason? “When you first applied for the CERB, you received two payments; a payment of $2,000 as well as a payment following your initial report. This $2,000 was an advance on four weeks of the CERB, which was issued in order to get money in your pocket as quickly as possible”. The communication from the Trudeau Liberal Government than goes on to say: “Because of this advance, you will not receive not receive a payment when you complete your next report”. In other words, because the initial CERB payment was deemed to be an ‘advance’, it is now being fully clawed back. For many citizens, who were completely unaware that this initial $2,000 was considered to be an advance, they are now seriously adversely impacted having had no prior warning this situation was going to occur. According to the Liberal Government, when people submitted their first reports, they were told in advance that this would occur and how this would happen. As the Opposition Shadow Minister with the critic portfolio for this file, I feel that it is important that we refer back to media reports on April 8 of 2020. In particular Global News reported the headline “Did you get 2 CERB payments? It’s not a mistake, Minister says”. The article further quotes that: “Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos clarified during a press conference on Wednesday. The second deposit is a retroactive payment.” For many Canadians who heard the President of the Treasury Board declare this $2000 was a “retroactive payment” and relied on that in good faith, they are shocked and confused to be told the payment was actually an “advance” and will be now clawed back. Aside from the confusion created on part of the government, I also question the government’s logic on this. If the intent was to “advance” funds “in order to get money in your pocket as quickly as possible”, this raises an important question. We can assume the intent to rush the payment was to avoid placing people into dire financial circumstances. So how does fully clawing back an entire CERB payment, with no advance notice, not end up putting citizens into a dire financial situation now? All of this confusion occurred because the Liberal Government did not clarify that this was not a “retroactive payment” but rather an advance. The Prime Minister has had many morning appearances outside of his cottage where this could have easily been clarified. It has not been. This follows a trend. For example, when the CERB program was first announced by the Minister of Employment, Ms. Qualtrough said in the House of Commons that the benefit was non-taxable. We now know it is taxable. Similarly, the Prime Minister provided erroneous information regarding student eligibility on the CERB program that to this day not been clarified. All of these communication errors could result in citizens having support funds “clawed back” unexpectedly. My question this week: Does the Prime Minister have an obligation to correct and clarify inaccurate information that Canadians rely on? I can be reached at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca or call toll free 1-800-665-8711.
9 Comments
Eva
6/24/2020 04:10:09 pm
Yes I think he should make this payment available
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Jennifer Gray
6/24/2020 05:53:59 pm
The prime minister absolutely has an obligation to tell the TRUTH!
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Viki Sim
6/24/2020 06:29:16 pm
I received a CERB payment after my first unemployment report. I did not apply for CERB and had no intentions of doing so. How can it be labeled as an advance when they said they were going to give up to 4 months worth of payments? Now I'm told that because I wasn't unemployed long enough, I may have to pay it back.
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Steve
6/27/2020 09:02:23 pm
THIS IS A LIE! I'm on CERB and have received 3 payments, April, May, and June.
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Amber
6/28/2020 07:16:36 am
Actually it isn’t a lie it happened to two of my family members just recently
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Steve
8/5/2020 09:52:52 am
Do you family members understand how math works? If they got $4000 - double the amount advertised - for one month, how is it a shock that the government won't give you another $2000 until the third month?
Rich worton
8/12/2020 05:04:29 am
The CRA Are claiming that I applied for CERB from the CRA and from EI simultaneously and now I owe $2000 to the CRA and they are also clawing back my first CERB payment from EI. I have no idea what they are talking about and am attempting to sort this whole thing out while being unemployed due to Covid and Wasting job search time trying to talk to multiple govt departments who put you on hold for hours thanks to the Trudeau govt.
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Hi Rich,
MONICA VOIGT
12/16/2021 11:52:27 am
Some of my colleagues have received an email regarding a repayment. It is hard to tell if this is a legit email or a scam. Is the CRA sending these emails? I have several calls from the CRA telling me there is an arrest warrant for me if I do not pay right away. I know those are a scam. Thank you.
Reply
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May 2023
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Central Okanagan – Similkameen – Nicola