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.
My parents are in a kerfuffle with some agency over COVID funds.
My dad got laid off around the time of COVID for unrelated reasons, not because of COVID or shutdowns in anyway.
He then applied for employment insurance since he qualified.
Without anyone asking, he somehow was instead put him on some sort of COVID EI thing instead of regular EI
Then later on someone decided the COVID EI thing needs to be reimbursed or something so they are asking for all the money back despite the fact he would have gotten more money from regular EI and never asked for the COVID stuff.
It’s been like 4 years now and they are still trying to get the money back and won’t even talk to them to try and fix the situation, just keep sending letters.