Information Sessions on Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) Repayment Letters

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is standing by to assist Canadians who may have received correspondence indicating that they will now have to repay some or all of the COVID-19 individual benefits that they received during the pandemic.

Some of your clients and community members may have received a COVID-19 individual benefit from the CRA or from Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) that they were not entitled to and that they now need to repay. The CRA is responsible for collecting debts owed to both CRA and ESDC and has designed expanded payment terms to provide clients with more flexibility for repayment. The CRA will work with individuals to tailor a flexible approach based on unique situations.

As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada selected an attestation-based approach to enable rapid delivery of benefits to millions of Canadians. This relied on individuals determining if they were eligible for benefits based on established criteria. It was expected that some individuals would later be found to be ineligible and be required to repay those amounts. In order to protect the integrity of Canada’s Covid-19 benefit programs, the CRA and ESDC are making sure that those who received Covid-19 benefits were, in fact, entitled to them.

To support social service providers and community organizations working with clients who received a CERB repayment letter, the CRA, with support from ESDC, is hosting information sessions on June 7 and 8, 2022.

Registration:

For more information, please visit: