PANDEMIC PAYMENT RATTLES
Accessing B.C.'s benefit not so easy
When Jason Rainko heard the B.C. government was handing out up to $1,000 in a new benefit to help those hit hard by COVID-19 enjoy a better Christmas, the 41-year-old unemployed electrician from Kelowna thought he'd finally be able to buy his five-year-old son a Christmas present.
But when Rainko inputted his details into the government application form that went live Friday, he was in for a surprise. Even though he'd lost his job in April due to COVID-19, and was barely able to afford to live, he was only eligible for $62.
“Huge slap in the face,” he told Postmedia via email. “This B.C. Recovery Benefit would have allowed me to put some gifts under the tree for my son and maybe keep my cellphone connected to continue my job search. No gifts from dad this year, cellphone scheduled for cut off on Christmas Day, with other utilities to follow. I got as far on the B.C. Recovery Benefit application as to see I was eligible for $62 and I quit the application, did not submit it.”
Rainko is not alone in his criticism of the new government program. Finance Minister Selina Robinson has been under fire for the program's eligibility rules since they were first announced earlier this month. Although it was promised to help those hit hardest by COVID with a little extra tax-free cash before Christmas, eligibility depends on a person's 2019 income, before the pandemic started. Those who have lost their jobs since the COVID-19 pandemic started in March 2020, like Rainko, aren't eligible if they held well-paying work in 2019.
Rainko has been on employment insurance and federal wage assistance since April 1, after losing his job as an electrician in the oil and gas sector. But that doesn't count toward the B.C. benefit program. The government only looked at the $84,300 he made in his last full tax return in 2019.
“Hopefully the B.C. government will re-examine this benefit and consider removing the punchline from the joke that it is,” Rainko said.
Robinson was unavailable for an interview Monday. She has previously said using last year's tax information was the only way government could get the money flowing before Christmas. However, even if people are eligible, most will not receive the money before Christmas.
It's particularly egregious because the government has a record of people who have lost their jobs in 2020 in order to pay them employment insurance — people like Rainko, said Opposition Liberal critic Mike Bernier.
“If you're really trying to ( get this) out to people who need it, you already have a lot of this information for so many people, people on assistance, people on disability cheques, why do they have to apply?” said Bernier. “Direct deposit it.
Even for those who qualify based on pre-pandemic income, the application process can be challenging.
Surrey resident David Trewick said both he and his 84-year-old mother filled out the online application form as low-income residents, and were surprised when government contacted them shortly afterward and demanded full copies of their 2019 tax statements, driver's licences, bank statements and phone bills. The government notice said failure to comply within 30 days would mean he'd lose the benefit payment.
“It seems to me the government are deliberately making it difficult for people who need the money to get it,” he said.
“My father died of COVID-19 on Nov. 17 and my mother and I could do with this money, but the government doesn't seem to want to give it to us.”
Bernier said he's been contacted by numerous people with similar complaints.
“They've bogged it down with so much bureaucracy and red tape,” he said. “It almost makes me think they are making it difficult for people, hoping some will say screw it and not apply and the government saves money.”
Neither Trewick nor his mother are computer savvy, so they'll have to mail their copied tax returns and identification documents to the government, raising the prospect of identify theft if the package goes awry in the postal service.
He also questioned whether the government request for more information is random, saying he submitted documents Saturday at 3 a.m. after his graveyard shift and awoke the next morning with an automated government response demanding the proof of identification.
“It didn't seem like there was any time to assess it,” he said. “It sounds like they hadn't even processed the information.
“I don't know if they are doing it randomly, or what's going on.”
The extra hurdles are particularly disappointing because his 86-year-old father contracted COVID-19 in the hospital earlier this year while receiving treatment for another illness. He died inside the facility. His mother, now widowed, has been grappling with the forms and steps required to process his death, and the sudden government demand for copies of her financial information for the COVID-19 benefit is a stress she doesn't need, said Trewick.
The Ministry of Finance said in a statement that it sometimes requests more information from people if the information they enter does not match information already held by the province, or from their 2019 income tax return, in the areas of name, date of birth, net income, social insurance number, marital status, spouse's information or dependent children.
Applicants may also be required to provide utility bills or bank statements to prove they've been residents of the province since Dec. 18, 2020, or if they are new to the province or a temporary resident, the statement says.
Robinson has said 3.7 million British Columbians will get some money from the benefit program.
Families with annual incomes in 2019 of less than $125,000 can get $1,000,”with the benefit being reduced on a sliding scale to a cutoff income of $175,000.
Single people with annual incomes in 2019 of less than $62,500 can get $500, with a sliding scale for those earning up to $87,500.