More than a million college and university students cashed pandemic relief cheques, Statistics Canada said yesterday. According to Blacklock's Reporter, the new figures did not include benefits paid to almost 318,000 high schoolers..“Almost two thirds of postsecondary students, 65%, received emergency benefits,” said a StatsCan report. Analysts said of 1,539,300 students on campus from the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020 a total 1,006,300 received benefits..Payments included the Canada Emergency Response Benefit that paid a maximum $14,000 to jobless tax filers and the Canada Emergency Student Benefit that paid a maximum $8,000 to jobless students. “Younger workers were hit harder during the early stages of the pandemic,” said a StatsCan report Postsecondary Students Receiving Payments From The Canada Emergency Response Benefit And Canada Emergency Student Benefit In 2020..“Younger students were more likely to receive emergency benefits,” wrote analysts. “This may be partly due to older students having had a stronger attachment to the labour market.”.Figures earlier obtained through Access To Information showed the Canada Revenue Agency also paid benefits to 317,990 high school-age students, which included boys and girls as young as 15. The Canada Emergency Response Benefit Act allowed children to apply providing they could prove they were tax filers with reportable income in the past year..Auditors have not yet produced a full accounting of why the Response Benefit went dramatically over budget. Costs originally estimated at $24 billion totaled $81.6 billion when the program expired Oct. 1, 2020. The number of claimants was approximately triple the actual number of unemployed at the time..Taxpayers oppose amnesty for applicants who took advantage, according to in-house Revenue Agency research disclosed in 2021. “There is general consensus that overpayment of emergency benefits and related income taxes should be paid back to the Revenue Agency regardless of people’s personal situation,” wrote the Agency..“The concerns around the quick distribution of incentives primarily related to some people having purposefully abused the program,” said the Agency report Annual Corporate Research Qualitative Findings. Pollsters said taxpayers had “little appetite to allow longer repayment periods for those who had taken advantage of the situation.”.“There was an eloquent argument made that the tax system must have accountability, integrity and fairness and that included an obligation to pursue repayment of money that is owed,” said the report..“For example, it was felt if ineligible recipients were not asked to repay benefits it would be unfair to those who did not apply because they knew or thought they were not eligible.”
