From April 2020 to June 2022, Masse received more than $41,000 in government benefits — only to later get a letter from the Canada Revenue Agency saying he wasn’t eligible for the money, and that he had to pay it back.

According to the CRA, Masse did not meet the minimum net earnings of $5,000.

“I was stunned. I couldn’t believe it,” said Masse. “I would have never applied for anything that I did not qualify for.”

In early 2024, after months of back and forth, the CRA agreed he was entitled to some of the money. But he remains on the hook for about $27,000.

  • NotSteve_@piefed.ca
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    1 day ago

    I do, why can’t we just consider this a trial project for UBI? I’d imagine the majority of the people who received the money are probably those who’d be screwed being made to repay it all

    Why is it that we go through so much trouble raking back money in these sorts of programs for little people but don’t seem to think twice when forgiving billions in debts for large corporations?

    • panda_abyss@lemmy.ca
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      15 hours ago

      Why would I want to pay for UBI for only the most selfish entitled fucks in the country who wipe their asses with the rules I follow?.

      There were actual trials for UBI and this had literally nothing that made it a trial or could possibly prove it’s effectiveness.

      I don’t mind paying my taxes, but I pay way to much to watch my hard started money get handed to people abusing a once in a generation emergency for their own selfishness and gain.

        • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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          6 hours ago

          Full stop doesn’t follow a question mark

          What a weird and absolutely pointlessly insignificant thing to complain about.

          • gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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            5 hours ago

            I’m just being petty cause they came into a thread and made a stupid pointless complaint about “grammar”

            I personally don’t give a shit, but if they’re going to come at people for grammar, at least fucking know how to do grammar in the first place, y’know?

            Personally, I think Prescriptivism is only applicable on formal contexts, where people can’t just be like “what did you mean there btw?” in places where funky grammar makes shit unclear…

    • tleb@lemmy.ca
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      23 hours ago

      why can’t we just consider this a trial project for UBI?

      Because it wasn’t UBI… the U is rather important there.

      Why is it that we go through so much trouble raking back money in these sorts of programs for little people but don’t seem to think twice when forgiving billions in debts for large corporations?

      I can only speak for myself here, but I am also very much against forgiving large corp debts

    • Pyr@lemmy.ca
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      18 hours ago

      If everyone gets to keep the cash to we then send equivalent cash to everyone else who didn’t apply at the time because they knew they didn’t qualify? Or do we just reward the people who made a mistake / lied and screw over the people who were smart enough / honest to not apply?