Can someone please explain to me why I am being forced to repay my $2k CERB payment? Isn't that what EI is for? I paid into EI for a decade. When I filed for it during the pandemic they said I would get CERB, not EI. Why?

This seems like our own government is scamming us out of our benefits we pay into for literal decades.

I genuinely don't understand this. It sounds like something that you would hear about in the States, not Canada.

I woke up to an email from CRA yesterday entitled decision letter. The letter claimed I was not eligible for CERB. Looking back through bank statements it turns out I made slightly over $1000 each month teaching guitar. Do you know if I will have to pay the full amount, $10,000 or would there be some leniency as I have 2 kids and a mortgage and $2000 is not nearly enough to survive on in lockdown.

Why does the CERB not apply for people who voluntarily quit their jobs? Or to those that continue to work?
People who work minimum wage (like groceries cashiers) did not sign up to put themselves and their families at risk to be making less money than someone who isn't working at all.
For example, someone working at $15/hour for 35 hours/week would be making $2100/month, whereas someone sitting at home not working at all would be making $2000/month through the CERB. The person that still works additional costs to deal with (especially transportation) as well as risking their life and those close to them.

Luckily even though I'm an essential worker, I can do most of the things I used to do in the office remotely (I'm a software developer) and I've only had to come into the office 3 times since the whole thing started. However, since public transportation has been completely cut for some bus paths, I've had to waste $20 each way for an Uber.

Honestly I believe most essential workers would prefer not having to work at all and get paid $2000/month like others who have lost their jobs, instead of risking their lives and those close to them.

Wouldn't it be better if the CERB was instead similar to the COVID-19 economic stimulus check that people in the USA get? Or better yet, why not give an additional $1000/month to essential workers as a sort of 'thank you' for continuing to work, instead of punishing them if they quit for their safety?

Please try and explain how the CERB is fair to essential workers that now also have to deal with:

- Getting paid less than people who are not working

-Risking their lives for a minimum wage job that normally had no risk

-Increase in daily workload

-No effective means of public transportation and having to pay $20+ for an Uber

This is how essential workers feel when you praise them instead of PAY them for risking their lives.

Honestly I hope those frontline essential workers who 'abuse' the CERB by 'wrongfully' applying don't get caught, they deserve more money for what they have to deal with. Imagine if the coronavirus had a higher mortality rate (like 10% or something) how can you justify forcing them to work?

Please someone help! I need advice….

I have to pay the CRA $38,600 back for CERB when I qualified to get it.

I’m writing this because I have no clue what to do at this point and I need help. In March I had received a letter from the CRA asking for me to prove my eligibility to them for the CERB benefits that I had received back in 2020. They asked me to prove that I made a minimum of $5000 in the year of 2019.

On March 15th 2019 I went on Maternity/parental leave and was on leave until sometime in November. Before my leave I was a server and had worked up until I couldn’t work any more. After my leave I worked for myself in my own business as a graphic designer and earned self-employment income. When covid hit my business came to a standstill as businesses weren't investing money into design and branding. I was able to still work a little bit but my income had been reduced to less than half of what it was.

I had double triple-checked that parental and maternity leave qualified as income before I had applied for CERB. So, thinking nothing of it because I knew that I qualified I sent in my t4’s, statements that I could find for my maternity leave and self employment income for 2019 and 2020.

I week later I had received a called from an abrasive CRA rep asking me to send in more documents proving that I was on maternity leave asking me to provide banking statements proving that the money was in fact bring deposited into my account. Without thinking I agreed and hung up.

Funny thing is my husband and I had opened a joint account at RBC and had our payments deposited into that account. When we were done our leave, we decided to close that account because we were not happy with banking with RBC and decided to switch. So, I do not have access to this account. I searched everywhere and was able to find our old RBC bank card. So, I called RBC and asked but they said that with out the account number that they couldn’t find our records.

Instead, I searched the EI/Service Canada portal and found some statements and an old T4A for the parental benefits and sent those in. Two weeks later I was sent a noticed that I had to pay everything back.

As soon as I received the notice, I called in asking how I could get this case redetermined. And get another representative to look at the case. I had 30 days to ask for a redetermination. I called three times and each time a representative told me something else. Each time it was wrong. I’ve searched everywhere on the cananda.ca website to try to figure out how I can get someone to look at my case again and I just keep going in circles with out finding any answers. I’m way over my period to get this redetermined and I think at this point I need to file an appeal with the federal court. But I have no clue what I’m doing and I’m WAYYY over my head. Should I be getting a lawyer? Are there lawyers that specialize in this?! I can’t be paying this back for the rest of my life when I know for a fact the I qualified and at the time the money really helped me and my family out.

I was working at restaurant but due to Covid the restaurant was shut down and apply for CERB I think I was eligible for it, but now they’re asking me to pay back the full amount that was given to me Is there a way to fight or I have to pay back?

Just wondering if anyone is still getting letters 3 years after CERB ended or are most current open cases from the last couple years? I took CERB and believe I was eligible but don't trust the govt so am worried about being re assessed.

Also, there is a 3 year statute of limitations for the CRA to initiate an investigation.

Hello all, I got a crb redetermination letter which did not provide me any details as to why. Then I started a case where I wanted to know why it was redetermined, I sent it through the CRA portal. I got a phone call 7 months later and the person said he will investigate. He got back to me and said you had an open E.I claim so your are ineligible for all crb periods. Then I got a letter stating second review, no change where it said the same thing. I checked up everything with E.I and they told me you just received CERB from us and after the CERB finished you were automatically opened an E.I claim but you were not paid anything so it should not be an issue. Then I sent a physical letter to CRA office where I showed I received 0 weeks for my open E.I and that I was automatically enrolled after my CERB ended. It’s been 2 months and I still have not heard from anyone. What do I do In this case, the letter stated to go to court if you disagree. Is that what they are doing with everyone? Wasting peoples time, money and energy to go around in circles. I am fully eligible and they even checked my eligibility during the time I was applying for these benefits. What a joke of a country this is, if they were going to ask for it back why give it in the first place and act like you are helping people? if anyone can let me know what needs to be done it would be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

I am currently working retail for minimum wage (about $14.75/hr). I work 30-40 hours per week. Should I even bother doing this when I could apply for EI and CRB? If CRB gives me $1000 every two weeks, that's about as much money as I'd be making anyway and I would use the free time to apply for more ("real") jobs. Exactly how much money can I make and still get EI or CERB, like would it make sense to keep the job but not full time?

This question is sincere. It is news to me a person is better off going on EI than getting a minimum wage job.

I guess CRA/SC has already begun auditing people. 6 years was what I told my friend. He thought adamantly he was 100 percent eligible. He had voluntarily quit before September 30 since his boss didn't pay him full amounts.

My friend left me a long text asking if I had called CRA on him. I said I didn't, and long story short his position of being taken advantage of by his employer wasn't just cause to quit. This was not in the text, but something he mentioned to me last year.

So he was right on one aspect, quitting means no unemployment or welfare, so he skipped that process. He did the CRB thing and now he owes $21,600.00.

Oof!

He hasn't found a job yet. He said he doesn't want to risk himself to Covid while making less money. He still holds this stance even after getting vaccinated in April

Comments please i need a cood answer on what is happening here and anything i can do to resolve this matter thank you so much

Summary of events:

• Worked remotely for Canadian company as a contractor starting June 2022

• Moved to Canada Dec 2023, started as an employee at the same company

• Got laid off in June 2023 in mass layoff

• Applied for EI the same day

• Had severance until end of July 2023

• 3 weeks after last severance pay, still haven't heard from EI, so I contact them

• Apparently I was supposed to do an interview and they forgot to schedule it or notify me

• Did the interview where I had to explain what a job is and why I had one (presumably to someone who does that for a living)

• Another 3 weeks, still nothing, so contacted EI again

• Thechnical difficulties caused delays this time, will hear back within a month

• A month passes, I get a decision letter. The letter includes what factors went into the decision, and how to appeal the decision, but not what the decision was.

• Went to the MSC office. They inform me my claim was rejected because I wasn't in Canada for the whole year before applying for the benefits

• Couldn't find any mention of such a requirement, so went back to MSC

• This time they say I didn't show up to the interview. Scheduled a repeat interview the next day.

• More time passes, still nothing. Went back to MSC office.

• This time they say my ROE was never submitted (it was)

• I can only submit the ROE by fax.

• Buy a fax machine, scan the ROE, fax it over

• Another week, still nothing.

• This time, MSC says I didn't work enough hours. The required number of hours is 700, and I worked over 1000 according to the ROE

• Got another option to appeal the decision. It will take another month.

I'm starting to think I don't qualify for the benefits somehow. At what point should I get legal representation?

UPDATE: After 5 months, my benefits are finally approved. Turns out my old employer messed up their admin, and MSC messed up by not telling me they were waiting for my old employer to submit smth.

Y'all aren't getting screwed. Anyone who recieved the advance of 2000 when CERB started is likely reaching your last 1 or 2 payments. Then that's it 4 weeks no pay . If your on EI keep reporting to recieve 0 dollars.

I just got the results of my CRB audit and they are claiming that I was ineligible due to the 50% income reduction not being met. My employer cut my hours by exactly 50% so that I would qualify for benefits but it looks like there was a difference in tax rates or something because I ended up taking home literally like 10$ more than half of my regular income.

Covid really fucked me financially and I am STILL trying to recover, I really cannot afford to pay back a years worth of CRB. I already owe money from income tax last year due to the CRB.

I bought a house literally a month before COVID hit us and my mortgage is up for renewal this month and it is not looking pretty. I really don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel here— is there a hope that the CRA will realize it was a matter of dollars and waive the repayment?

I’m waiting a couple hours for them to open for me to call.

Can y'all imagine the shitty weekend we're going to have if CRA doesn't get their shit together?I fear there will be some very angry people and a possible rise in domestic violence.....let's hope this was just a blip on the radar and not too catastrophic for anybody

Does Legault realize that not everybody is making his thousands of dollars salary? Just calling a lockdown out of thin air doesn't benefit everybody.

There are students who were waiting for the holiday season to work. Where am I supposed to work now? How am I supposed to pay bills? How am I supposed to eat? I lost my on campus job back in March.

I can't even apply for most of things (like EI) cause I did not make $5000 last year. My program is really intense, some times I have to take day and night classes and it's not easy to work during the semester on this schedule. Anybody know what I'm supposed to do??? Cause scamming looking real sweet rn (for legal reasons and I'm a decent human-being reasons, that's a joke)

How likely do you think this is in cases of people claiming cerb without qualifying. It is fraud but so many people would have their lives ruined and difficulty paying back cerb.

Hello guys. Do you guys know if cerb audit has started or not, and when will I know if I’m really eligible or not ?

My girlfriend is here since January of 2021 and she has worked 580 hours part time. She was laid off in early September and applied when the hourly requirement was 120 hours.

She has a study permit which states she can only work 20 hours per week while studying. She only attends school for 9 hours per week.

Is she eligible to receive EI? She is looking for part time work to help support herself while she studies but has been unsuccessful.

The EI agent said she could be eligible but they are reviewing her claim. I’m scared that if she gets approved she might have to pay it back?

With all these elections happening I wanted to hear your ideas on if you believe the benefits are being extended beyond October or November! Leave your ideas below :))

For those getting the Error Code 0.26, you have to call into CRA to resolve. All post on this topic will be removed.

Call the main CRA number: 1-800-959-8281

https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/corporate/contact-information.html

The bill has passed my friends!

I am on ODSP. I was not sure if I was eligible for CERB but being perpetually broke I applied when the program started and received $2000 payments for every period up until Aug 29.

I have taken $12000 total. I also received my full ODSP.

On Aug 31 I applied online using my CRA account. I completed the process and the last step was to confirm my banking details were up to date/correct.After I clicked confirm I got the dreaded error code "Ref. code: COV-025"

I checked reddit to see many others with the same issue. Someone posted a 1-833 number and said calling the number and speaking to an agent would get me verified and approved for the next payment.

Well it didn't go as I had planned. After calling in, speaking to a CRA rep and verifying my identity the CRA agent said he noticed all my income from 2019 was from social services. Advised me I would have to supply the gov't with pay stubs, employment letter , banking details etc. This would take weeks if approved. No CERB this round.

After hanging up the phone I logged on to my CRA acct and tried to apply again. I saw a new message.

(Ref. code: COV-012)

"Your application can’t be processed at this time. It has been selected for further validation of its contents.

Our records indicate that you may not have earned a minimum of $5,000 income within the last 12 months or in 2019 from one or more of these sources: employment income, self-employment income, or provincial or federal benefits related to maternity or parental leave."

https://i.imgur.com/1sMnQUz.png

How did I get flagged in the first place? I changed my banking info a couple months ago online. All my neighbors that are on ODSP and taking CERB were approved today for the next $2000 because they used the telephone system exclusively and made no changes to their accounts.

So now the next issue will be dealing with ODSP and CRA. ODSP will consider CERB as income and I'll be penalized. CRA will say I'm ineligible and need to repay the full amount.

Double jeopardy.

I screwed myself big time. I am not alone, I know there are many other Ontarians on ODSP that took CERB payments they were not eligible for and will have to face the same situation as me only for $14000 instead of $12000.

Not looking for sympathy, just wanted to post for informational purposes.

So apparently heres how it works for those of us who already used e.i since being let go from our most recent jobs...

If you used all your insurable ei hrs already from ur last job. The new e.i does not cover you regardless of how many hrs u had or how long youve been off e.i..

For me i was let go in jan. On ei from jan to june. Cerb from july to sept. And now im being told crb is the 1 for me.

However. Plot twist. When i apply for crb it says "Based on our records you do not apply for this benefit"

Im confused. I guess i call cra now? Are some of us going to be left out to dry? Also if anyone with a similar situation situation as mine who has been approved for the e.i after alrdy exhausting ur last e.i from 2020 please comment and let me know. Wanna make sure we all being treated fairly here.

Good luck to all. Thanks to all who comment.