Over 620,000 people received the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) who were ineligible and faced clawbacks of tax refunds to recover the overpayments.. Daniel Blaikie NDP .The information was requested by New Democrat MP Daniel Blaikie (Elmwood-Transcona, MB), who advocated for a CERB amnesty..In an Inquiry of Ministry tabled in the Commons, Cabinet said that 327,528 debtors had repaid COVID relief payments to the federal treasury in part or in full..“23,494 individuals have had CERB debt recovered through withholding T1 tax refunds,” said the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)..A larger number, a total of 620,310 debtors, made no payments and faced clawbacks..Data was tabled in reply to MP Blaikie, who asked “How many individuals have had their CERB debt collected through withholding of tax refunds?”.On February 16, Blaikie told the Commons Finance committee that cabinet should declare an amnesty on the recovery of Canada Emergency Response Benefit payments..“There are a lot of folks asking for this,” said Blaikie..“It’s reasonable for government to expect that people below the poverty line don’t have the money to pay back that debt anyway. There is a significant investment of resources at the moment in chasing that debt.”.According to Blacklock’s Reporter, in a September 21 Inquiry of Ministry, the CRA said it had spent $147.6 million to date on audits and recovery of ineligible payments of as little as seven dollars..“The Agency [CRA] is committed to ensuring individuals receive only the benefits to which they are entitled,” wrote staff..On March 25, 2020, just days into the pandemic, Parliament passed the Canada Emergency Response Benefit Act to pay $2,000 monthly to save jobless tax filers from eviction or foreclosure..The program initially budgeted at $24 billion instead cost $81.6 billion and became the subject of numerous audits..The data showed 1,890,059 claimants were ineligible since they already received federal benefits like Employment Insurance..The CRA disqualified another 611,080 for reasons such as failing to file taxes..“Real compassion requires a CERB debt amnesty for low-income Canadians,” Blaikie earlier told the Commons..“I think it is wasteful to chase the poor for money they do not have because they took the government at its word, during a global crisis of unprecedented proportion, that if they needed help, they should apply for it.”.“When it turned out that they were not quite eligible because they were not poor in the right way, the government then said that they owe all of that money back,” said Blaikie..“It will pay people to hound them even though it knows they do not have the money, and it will never get that money back. It is going to throw good money after bad. That is waste.”
