Tories say seniors at the whims of bureaucracy

OTTAWA — The main emergency benefits lifeline for Canadians during the COVID-19 pandemic was, in fact, two streams processed by two government bodies, with implications for whether seniors qualify for federal support payments, the Conservatives say.

In a letter to Seniors Minister Deb Schulte, Tory MP Rosemarie Falk says some lowincome seniors “have been arbitrarily penalized” based on whether their guaranteed income supplement (GIS) came through Service Canada’s employment insurance program or through Canada Revenue Agency.

The $2,000-per-month Canada Emergency Response Benefit amounted to “two entirely different relief programs, distributed by different government agencies and with different eligibility criteria,” though seniors were never informed, Falk wrote in a letter.

“Applicants who collected emergency benefits through the EI system may exclude this income in their statement of estimated income” — and thus avoid clawbacks on their income supplement — “while applicants who collected emergency benefits through CRA cannot,” she wrote Monday.

Falk called the situation “unacceptable,” saying it could have been prevented with clearer communication and a more streamlined bureaucratic process.

The seniors minister’s office rejected Falk’s framing of how the CERB impacts the GIS — a monthly payment for low-income Canadians aged 65 and older.

“All CERB benefits were treated the same way as employment insurance in the calculation of benefits when GIS is renewed annually in July. Whether a senior received CERB from Service Canada or CRA did not affect their annual GIS renewal,” spokesman Scott Bardsley said in an email.

He says Falk’s claim seems to stem from a misunderstanding. In certain circumstances such as retirement or business closure, seniors on the GIS can request that their benefit be calculated based on their estimated income for the current calendar year rather than their actual income from the previous year. But CERB recipients whose payments came via the Canada Revenue Agency are not eligible, while Service Canada recipients are.

Recipients whose income was considered uninsurable — such as self-employed Canadians — collected the CERB through the CRA, while recipients with so-called insurable earnings went through Service Canada.

The cessation of Service Canada-handled CERB instalments can trigger an “option” that allows benefits payments to be excluded from recipients’ declared income, according to an internal Service Canada directive obtained by The Canadian Press.

While the dual-stream complication did not come to light until this week, opposition legislators say they’ve been flooded with calls from Canadians aged 65 and up who suddenly saw their monthly budget tossed out the window amid drastic dips in government supports due to the pandemic relief they relied on last year.