The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has recently terminated 20 employees after an internal review revealed that they had claimed COVID-19 benefits while still working at the tax authority. The CRA has stated that more employees may face termination as it investigates approximately 600 employees who may have received the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) inappropriately, despite not losing their jobs during the pandemic. It is important to note that these terminated employees represent less than 1% of the CRA’s workforce.
During the period of March to September 2020, the CRA was responsible for administering the $2,000-per-month CERB. In February, the CRA confirmed to the House of Commons standing committee for public accounts that a small number of employees had claimed COVID-19 benefits despite their employment status. This revelation, which was also mentioned in an auditor general’s report on COVID-19 benefits, prompted a broader internal review at the CRA to identify any employees who may have received the CERB inappropriately while employed by the CRA.
As of Friday, 20 employees have been terminated, and this number is likely to increase as the reviews are completed, according to CRA spokesperson Sylvie Branch. The statement did not disclose the amount of falsely claimed money by the terminated employees or those under investigation, but the CRA assured MPs in February that the money would be recollected.
The CRA emphasizes that being employed by the agency at the time the CERB was in effect does not necessarily make an individual ineligible for the benefit. Each case is being reviewed on an individual basis. Temporary or student contract workers, for example, would have been eligible for the benefit. To qualify for the CERB, applicants had to have lost their primary job or their source of income due to the pandemic. If they were still employed, their monthly income had to have dropped below $1,000 at the time of their application.
In addition, the CRA recently initiated efforts to recover overpayments of COVID-19 benefits through a process called “offsetting,” which involves using tax refunds and certain benefits to settle an individual’s debt with the government. Over a million notices were sent to individuals with outstanding debts from overpayments. Although the auditor general’s office reported that the federal government provided $4.9 billion in pandemic benefits to ineligible recipients, the CRA was only able to collect $2.3 billion through voluntary repayments. The CRA began clawing back tax refunds in October and has since recovered nearly $1.4 billion in COVID benefits, including approximately $237 million from 775,000 individuals through the use of offsetting.
Source: Global News.
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