Let this be a lesson to you…

That’s a phrase I’m all too familiar with.

In 2020, just like the rest of the world, my life was affected by the global pandemic. As a recent university graduate, I was just trying to get my foot in the corporate door while enjoying my summer. I worked every summer throughout my education but since Ms. Rona decided to cancel all of my job opportunities, I decided to apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to make up for the lost income. I applied for CERB through Service Canada but didn’t know if I was actually qualified because the requirements were so confusing. Nevertheless, all of the posts I was seeing regarding CERB, including the Government of Canada website, suggested that it was fine to apply because if you weren’t actually qualified, you would just have to pay the money back, no harm done, and no harm in applying… I tried calling the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) and Service Canada to triple check but both lines were extremely busy due to the lockdowns.

I received $8000 worth of CERB money which I didn’t spend because I was so scared I wasn’t qualified. A few months later, the CRA released the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) for students and recent graduates, a financial assistance program which I knew for sure I was qualified for. I called CRA and Service Canada (at the time, they were combined or in the process of being combined according to one of the agents I spoke with on the phone), I waited for hours just to get on the phone with an agent to ask them for directions on how to “close my account with CERB and apply for CESB”. I remember my exact words because I thought I sounded so silly not knowing how government funding worked. The agent told me that all I would have to do is return all of the CERB money to Service Canada and I’d be good to go with applying for CESB. So that’s what I did on July 27, 2020. I made an $8000 payment to Employment and Development Services Canada (ESDC), the proper bill payee, and applied for CESB. I thought everything was fine and used the CESB money to pay for my continuing studies courses that summer.

In 2021, I received a letter from the CRA saying that I owed them $1000 due to an advance payment that I received. I thought this was a scam email until I checked my “myCRA” account to confirm that it was indeed a legitimate letter that I had received. It looked like it had to do with the CESB funding I received so I quickly paid it off to the same ESDC bill payee I made the $8000 payment to using my same bank account, with no changes to the account at all. I received confirmation that the payment was received and all was good, or so I thought.

In October 2022, I received notice from the CRA that I was not eligible for CESB because I received CERB at the same time and that I owed CRA $3750. I thought that this was just an error and that the CRA would correct themselves eventually, as they had sent multiple notices of redetermination with different amounts. Since I don’t regularly receive government money in large sums, I didn’t notice that they had been withholding all refunds to be paid out to me until this “debt” was paid. It was only last year, 2023, that I noticed that CRA did not catch their error because they withheld my entire tax refund to get the alleged $3750 I owed them.

I was in a state of utter panic. I called CRA right away to find out what was happening. The CRA agent insisted that I was not qualified for CESB because I double received CERB and CESB. I told them that I repaid the CERB money as the agent from 2020 had advised me so that I could qualify for CESB. The new CRA agent from 2023 told me that there was no record of an $8000 payment ever being made to either CRA or Service Canada and that there was no proof that CRA or Service Canada asked for this money back since it was a voluntary repayment.

ESDC didn’t record my $8000 payment in 2020. My heart dropped.

I called my accountant to keep him in the loop and I went to my bank to see if the error was on their part. Nope. The $8000 payment was made and there are bank statements and a reference number to prove it.

I was told by the multiple telephone agents I’d spoken with that it was a Service Canada issue but that the accounts payable for Service Canada are handled by the CRA so the case would be dealt with either a CRA agent or a Service Canada agent. I called both services and they redirected me to each other multiple times. I decided to take matters in person, I physically went into a Service Canada branch to give them the bank documents but they told me that this was a higher-level issue and that all they could do is accept the documents. I was told multiple times that an agent would call me but it had been 10 months and no one had called despite my letters and monthly follow-up calls to the CRA and Service Canada.

Finally, in December of 2023, I was assigned a processing agent from Service Canada who I thought could help solve the problem but he made it even worse! He created a Notice of Debt for me for $2750 for no real reason and told me to ignore it because it was supposed to represent the money I would get back (which didn’t include the $1000 extra payment from 2021). I followed up with him because I wanted to clarify what had happened and he said that Service Canada paid the $3750 I owed CRA, a balance which I had already paid through my tax refunds etc. He double paid CRA and said I now owe ESDC (Service Canada) this money which would be taken from the $9000 payments from 2020 to 2021.

This means that he took $3750 and wrongfully gave it to the CRA while applying only $5250 to the $8000 balance that ESDC gave me in 2020. So, he is claiming that I now owe ESDC $2750. I called CRA to see if they received this wrongful payment so they could refund it to ESDC and they said they didn’t have any record of $3750 being paid on my behalf by ESDC but now there is an ADDITIONAL $2100 balance owing to ESDC by me. I am currently on EI and ESDC has already taken money from me to pay this false balance.

This is an absolute nightmare and the ESDC agent told me to take it up with my local MP (Member of Parliament) because it is too complicated.

If you or anyone you know has experienced something like this with the CRA or Service Canada, feel free to leave a comment!

Stay tuned to see if this issue ever gets resolved!