How to claim your CERB payment

OTTAWA • Self-employed Canadians who reimbursed the Canada Emergency Response Benefit at the government’s request because they thought they were eligible under “unclear” revenue criteria can now file a claim to have that money sent back to them.

“Starting today, self employed workers who applied for the CERB in good faith can apply to have the Government reimburse their CERB repayments. This will help to ensure that self-employed individuals continue to receive financial support throughout the pandemic,” Minister of National Revenue Diane Lebouthillier said in a statement.

Thursday, National Post reported that the government’s decision in February to forgive the debt of an estimated 30,000 self-employed Canadians who claimed an average $8,000 in CERB overpayments despite being ineligible will cost $240 million.

Of that number, 6,500 had already reimbursed some or all of the CERB they received to the government, and so qualify to have that money sent back to them so long as they meet all other eligibility criteria.

According to a statement by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) Thursday, those individuals need to complete a new “CERB Reimbursement Application for Self-employed Individuals” form available on CRA’S website and submit it to the agency. Those applications will be processed starting June 15, and reimbursements will occur roughly three months later.

The other tens of thousands of self-employed Canadians who applied for the $2,000 per month emergency benefit despite being ineligible because of confusing messaging by the CRA — but who hadn’t yet sent the money back — don’t need to do anything except file their 2019 and 2020 taxes.

Once that is done, the agency will have the necessary information to verify that the applicant met every other criteria for CERB except the $5,000 net revenue threshold since 2019 before erasing the emergency benefit repayment debt.

The announcement by Ottawa is the final note of a saga that began with a miscommunication by the CRA last spring as to how much income self-employed Canadians needed to have made in order to be eligible for the $2,000-a-month payment.

An estimated 30,000 applicants falsely understood that they needed to have made $5,000 in gross income as opposed to net income in 2019 or in the 12 months leading up to the application.

The issue only fully came to light when Canadians began to panic after receiving an “educational” letter from the tax agency last December saying it needed proof they had made at least $5,000 in net income in 2019, or they should be prepared to pay all CERB money back.

In February, Employment Minister Carla Qualtrough announced that those self-employed applicants could keep the money.