CERB Repayment and dispute

[fortruth73]

So during Covid my hours got cut extremely short, I was working 3 hour shifts maybe 2 times a week even after begging for more hours. The reason being I worked in a store within a mall so the mall itself opened late and closed early due to Covid restrictions. My manager told us to apply for El due to the lack of hours and that's what I did.

I made enough money to be covered by El and I spoke to multiple people on the phone to ensure that I was eligible. Word for word I remember an agent telling me that as long as Covid was affecting my hours and I would try to look for another job, and also made a certain amount in the last year then I would be eligible.

I then started to receive El payments and I continued to fill out the paperwork required to stay on El every few weeks asking about how many hours I worked and how much I made ect.

I guess by my own fault of being an idiot I didn't realize they had just switched me over to CERB without letting me know (the payments still showed up in my bank account as El as well) and I continued to take payments until I got a better job with hours that Covid didn't effect.

Fast forward to now, I received a letter stating that I am now in debt and owe the government 10k....

I was completely shocked and wondered what the hell I did wrong for this to happen even after I had multiple discussions with agents telling me I was able to receive payments and was eligible. I filed a formal dispute and never heard back, it's still in my cra account as debt and l'm not sure what to do.

One of the agents even called me leaving a voice mail to discuss the debt while I was out of the country and when I tried to call back I was on hold for hours and just gave up.
Really not sure what to do now and I'm really worried. How does this kind of debt even work do I get interest on it as well? How am I supposed to get this to go away?

Any advice or thoughts/opinions or similar experiences would be extremely helpful. Please feel free to leave any advice you think could help me out!

 

[tanithdaunicorn]

@fortruth73 You can dispute it, but you’re going to need some sort of legal advice as well as evidence to support your claim.

The other option to get them off your back, is to contact and arrange a payment schedule.

In their eyes, you owe them 10k and they’re not just going to walk away, so I would suggest you deal with it sooner than later. They could easily start garnishing your wages if not. This is the CRA after all.

My sister is experiencing a similar situation as we speak and just made arrangements to pay $100/mth for the next 15 years.

 

[fortruth73]

@tanithdaunicorn Yea when I disputed it I had to show my paystubs from that year and also explain my situation and why I believed that this shouldn’t be a debt.

They aren’t a bother or anything, if anything I WANT them to get on my back otherwise it’s crazy hard to contact them. I’m happy to arrange something as long as I’m told that my dispute was denied or literally any update on the dispute but it’s been zilch since I sent it to them.

 

[joshuas1420]

@fortruth73 Hey, you can fill out the T-186 with your paperwork for the student debt reduction program. This can help reduce the debt by $1250 or $2000 if you have dependents and I believe up to 4 times. I hope this helps as there is limited information being posted about the student debt reduction program. Here is the link for further information and make sure to read the eligibility on the actual form not the website as the website doesn’t show some fine details which can help a lot of students. The link is: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/benefits/apply-for-cerb-with-cra/return-payment/student-cerb-debt.html I would also like to note that if you make $30,000 or less after taxes you can ask the CRA to give you back any lump sum paid to Covid repayments due to low income and still go on a payment plan. As we know the CRA will take the full lump sum from your tax return regardless if you are on a payment plan. So if you make 30K or less call in and ask for them to return the lump sum. Also, if you are on a payment plan for repayment of Covid benefits and they take the lump sum for repayment… you have to call in to turn off the payment plan as it will not turn off automatically and you will have to wait up to 90 days for repayment of any of those funds. Hope all this information helps!

 

[raviathon]

@tanithdaunicorn Hey just a question when your sister spoke with cra did she just call directly or get legal advice and when you say 100/month for 15 years was that for CERB payments of 18,000

 

[iight]

@tanithdaunicorn 15 yrs is too long. The best advice is legal they have to look into things and try to negotiate something whatever that is with the Government it could take up a month but in my case it's Tax season so it's good and bad.

 

[athanasius1007]

@fortruth73 There were many eligibility criteria for CERB. At the time, it was advertised all over their site that claims were converted to CERB and provided eligibility criteria. Every time you did a claimant report, there would have been a notice at the top of the page to verify your eligibility.

What criteria didn’t you meet? The $1000 threshold per period?

 

[lika2022]

@athanasius1007 Exactly. Negligence, by your own admission, is not an excuse for 'not knowing'. You'll be hard-pressed to receive any kind of leeway for what you owe if it's indeed deemed that you owe. We need to know the reason you were deemed ineligible in order to know if it's legit or can be fought.

 

[mikeinseattle]

@lika2022 I found it kind of weird, I was laid off and receiving about 100$ a month less than what CERB became. They took me off my EI once CERB came out and I got CERB payments. I wanted to stay on my EI lol. A little strange in my opinion.

 

[fortruth73]

@mikeinseattle It was stupid, they did it to everyone. They should have at least notified people through mail or stopped the EI payments completely and have people re-apply for cerb if they really needed it. I know so many people that didn’t even know they got switched to cerb until much after the fact. I even know someone who worked for the CRA and they found the entire thing to be extremely disorganized and unfair to people. Of course there are those who committed fraud and took on payments that they weren’t eligible in the slightest for but a lot of people who were deemed eligible got dragged down as well. Gotta love Canada

 

[freedomusa]

@fortruth73 As reply I applied for EI I received my first payment off 2000. I phone them immediately and as wtf. As I would max out high than 500 per week. I was told at the time it would be better for me to be on cerb rather than use my weeks. I said no I would like just EI. Long story short they continued to pay out under cerb. Even after several phone calls. Now years later many many many times trying to deal with this situation. I yet to receive a phone call on return to deal with this. I am seeking counsel now.
Just FYI even on EI which is an insurance to wit we our employer and ourselves pay into. You might have to make a repayment of in and around 30%.
This is not a insurance if you have to repay.
At no point in the first bit of this did it advertise a loan or 100% repayment. It violates just about everything.

 

[mikeinseattle]

@fortruth73 So how is it that they claim that you owe them money? The whole thing is confusing to me. Are they trying to say that you weren’t eligible?

 

[fortruth73]

@mikeinseattle Yea It’s the eligibility that has been questioned but I looked at the evidence on my end and it just doesn’t add up, I’m quite confused too. But I provided my evidence in the dispute so I guess I’ll get my answers once Im able to speak to someone.

 

[fortruth73]

@lika2022 I understand it could be considered negligence but I really did make sure that everything was okay by consistently calling to make sure of it and seeing that I was getting paid by EI only. I was a Student, working as many Full-time hours as I could, while paying rent and for my own groceries, utilities ect.

I believe the issue was I made about $100 less in the previous year to be earning. However, after checking my pay stubs and looking at my tax forms I’m confident it’s a mistake on their end. Which is why I’m asking for advice in the first place. No where am I looking for any leeway, if it in fact is my fault and I owe it then I’m open to paying it off, but as of right now I don’t believe I should be in this debt.

 

[yaoshi]

@fortruth73 Once a certain period of time has gone by and the debt has not been discussed/ negotiated or properly disputed they freeze your bank accounts. Becareful with that one, for any bounced Preauthorized debits the banks are ruthless and will not return the NSF fees, they rack up heavily too.

 

[fortruth73]

@yaoshi Yea I’m definitely not letting it get that far. I’m trying to get info on my dispute and if not or if they deny my dispute I’m 100% setting up a payment method to begin paying it back. Times are just tough right now.

 

[ibiggy]

@fortruth73 They just garnished basically 50% of my EI to cover the overpayments. I’m done now paid back 2 grand but it came off my EI so it didn’t really matter

 

[fortruth73]

@ibiggy I wouldn’t even mind if they did that to me either I just wish they’d at least get back to me about my dispute. I also feel like yours wasn’t too bad, mine is a lot more so maybe garnishing my EI isn’t enough to pay it off. I guess we’ll have to see but thank you for sharing your experience it’s good to know that that’s an option.

 

[ibiggy]

@fortruth73 I had a repayment plan of $50 a month but I also failed to keep that I did most months but also forgot a few then they threatened collections. Sometimes I put $100, this went on for 10 months then I was eventually laid off and they took it right off my EI. Sort of pain free. I work with a couple who have twice as much debt as you, 20k each. Obviously they stayed away from work while some of us went back , I technically didn’t apply for the 2 grand either it just shows up

 

[jay1964]

@fortruth73 Dispute it first, and if you lose then contact a insolvency trustee to see how they can help.