The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) is responsible for collecting individual overpayments for all COVID-19 benefit programs, such as the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) and the Canada Worker Lockdown Benefit (CWLB).

Starting in July 2024, for individuals who have not responded or co-operated, and who have been determined to have the financial capacity to pay, legal warnings will be issued and legal measures could be taken to recover monies owed. Legal measures are only taken when there is no cooperation from an individual with ability to repay the debt.

Did you receive COVID-19 benefit payments from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in 2022? If you did, you should receive a T4A Statement of Pension, Retirement, Annuity, and Other Income slip. These payments are taxable, and you need the information on your T4A slip when filing your income tax and benefit return.

If you receive correspondence from the CRA, you should open it and take the actions requested. If you have questions about the correspondence you receive, you should call the telephone number given in the letter. Additional information is available on the Benefits being reviewed? Here’s what you need to know page.

The quick and decisive actions taken by the Government of Canada to provide income support through the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) helped more than 8 million workers and their families stay afloat, and millions more through the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) that followed.

As part of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Canada selected an attestation-based approach to provide this urgently-needed income support to Canadians in a timely fashion. Individuals determined if they were eligible for benefits based on established, publicly available criteria. The Government has been clear throughout the pandemic that while there will not be any penalties for those who applied for these benefits in good faith, individuals will have to repay the emergency benefits for which they were not entitled.

The Government of Canada announced that self-employed individuals who applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and would have qualified based on their gross income will not be required to repay the benefit, provided they also met all other eligibility requirements. The same approach will apply whether the individual applied through the Canada Revenue Agency or Service Canada.