fortruth73
New member
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!
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!