The Canada Revenue Agency is still trying to recover $5.2 billion in pandemic relief payments from 432,000 Canadians, years after Ottawa handed out billions in emergency benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.Blacklock's Reporter says federal records show the outstanding payments average more than $12,000 per recipient, with the CRA continuing efforts to collect money paid to people who were either ineligible for benefits or received more than they were entitled to claim.“As of March 27 the COVID-19 individual benefits collections workload has an inventory of over 1.2 million overpayments with 432,000 unique Social Insurance Numbers totaling $5.2 billion,” stated an internal CRA briefing note.“The insolvency workload has an inventory of over 55,000 cases totaling $561 million.”The figures were disclosed in an agency document titled Covid-19 Individual Benefits Collections And Compliance.Much of the outstanding money involves the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which provided $2,000 monthly payments to Canadians who lost employment income during the pandemic.The program was initially budgeted at $24 billion but ultimately paid out $74.7 billion, more than three times its original projected cost.Federal figures show 9,047,930 Canadians applied for CERB payments, representing nearly half the country's workforce at the time.Recipients included teenagers as young as 15.Previously released Access to Information records revealed Ottawa paid $635.9 million in pandemic benefits to 317,900 high school students, including 40,630 Grade 9 students.The CRA is also pursuing outstanding payments under several other pandemic-era programs, including the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit, Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit and Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit.However, the agency acknowledged it is concentrating collection efforts on cases where it believes taxpayers are most likely to repay the money.“Collection efforts are focused on accounts that have a higher potential for recovery,” the briefing note stated..The agency has also stopped actively pursuing certain individuals, including low-income Canadians and deceased recipients.“Vulnerable populations such as low-income individuals and the deceased have been removed from active collections,” the document stated.“The Agency’s priority is to help individuals resolve their debt. It will make every reasonable effort to work with them to establish a payment arrangement.”The federal government extended the deadline for collecting pandemic benefit debts until 2028 through a cabinet decision made November 19.No updated price tag was provided for the extended collection effort.A 2022 response to a parliamentary inquiry estimated collection-related costs at $320.2 million, although those figures were incomplete.The recovery effort has also generated thousands of legal disputes.According to the CRA briefing note, 5,050 people challenging pandemic benefit decisions have filed applications in Federal Court.The agency did not disclose how much taxpayers have spent on federal government lawyers handling those cases.Auditor General Karen Hogan previously criticized Ottawa for failing to move quickly enough to identify and recover improper pandemic payments.During a 2023 appearance before the House of Commons public accounts committee, Hogan questioned the limited amount of verification being conducted after benefits had already been distributed.“I am concerned about the little amount of post-payment work that’s being carried out,” she testified.Hogan said the federal government was responsible for determining whether to pursue recipients who received benefits they were not eligible to collect.“It’s entirely up to the government to make a decision on whether or not they want to investigate further or look to recover payment,” she said.“Under the current tax system, any individual or business that receives something they were not entitled to should pay it back.”The Auditor General also cautioned that not every improper payment involved deliberate fraud.Some recipients knowingly submitted false information, while others misunderstood the eligibility requirements or made mistakes when applying.Hogan described the latter group as “people who were just confused.”With $5.2 billion still outstanding across more than 1.2 million overpayments, the CRA's latest figures show the financial fallout from Ottawa's pandemic relief programs continues years after the emergency measures ended.
