North Bay woman finally gets CERB benefit
Switch from EI means disabled woman will get funds to help make up for job loss
Ottawa is converting Employment Insurance payments into emergency pandemic support for Amanda Demerse, a North Bay woman who lost her parttime job to COVID-19 in March and is struggling to pay rent and buy food on her meagre provincial disability benefits.
The switch means Demerse, 31, who has an intellectual disability and is unable to work full-time, gets to keep some of the federal Canada Emergency Response Benefit payments on top of her monthly $1,169 social-assistance cheque from Ontario.
Under long-standing provincial policy, most federal benefits, including EI, are deducted dollar for dollar from provincial welfare payments. But Ontario made an exception for the temporary $2,000-monthly CERB payments and is letting people on social assistance keep $1,100.
The Star featured Demerse’s plight in May as part of a story showing how provincial and federal income-support programs for the vulnerable often work at cross-purposes.
Demerse lost her part-time job as a rink attendant for the city of North Bay on March 16 when the municipality closed recreation facilities to slow the spread of COVID-19.
She applied to EI on March 23, as required by the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP). But instead of automatically being transferred to CERB, which Ottawa introduced at the end of
March to replace an overwhelmed EI system in the wake of the pandemic, Demerse has been receiving EI.
Late last week, Amanda’s father, Johnny Demerse, who has financial guardianship for his daughter, said federal bureaucrats contacted him to say they had “escalated” the case and that Ottawa was going to retroactively change her EI claim into a CERB claim as of March 15.
“I am sure your story had everything to do with it,” Demerse said Wednesday. “I sure hope that your article has helped others like it did for Amanda.
“Service Canada said they have a system that takes care of situations like my daughter’s, but not everyone knows about how to start the process of getting their claim changed to CERB.”
A spokesperson for Carla Qualtrough, federal minister for employment, workforce development and inclusion, said anyone who believes they are erroneously receiving EI rather than CERB can have their claim reviewed by calling Service Canada at 1-833-6990299.
“If someone is currently on EI and would like to switch over to the CERB, they can do that if they meet all the eligibility criteria … and understand and agree they will forfeit the rest of their EI entitlement,” Marielle Hossack said in an interview. The CERB pays $500 a week for 16 weeks to workers who earned at least $5,000 in the past year and who lost their job after March 15 or are making less than $1,000 a month due to the pandemic. Workers who quit their jobs are not eligible.
Demerse says now he is fighting with ODSP to ensure his daughter gets the retroactive federal support she is owed.