When the pandemic arrived in March 2020, the worker’s employment didn’t change and she continued to work full-time. The ESDC administered the Canada Response Emergency Benefit (CERB) – the temporary benefit program providing financial support to Canadians who lost their jobs or faced a significant reduction of income because of the pandemic – but the CRA administered it.
Application for CERB benefits
The worker applied for and received all seven four-week cycles of CERB payments from March 15 to Sept. 26, 2020, totalling $14,000. Although she didn’t experience a reduction in her ESDC income, her income from her home business was less than what she expected – although it actually increased from the previous year.
The instructions for CERB eligibility initially stated “for at least 14 consecutive days of the four-week period you selected, you have either stopped or will stop working due to COVID-19 or, you have lost or will lose your regular employment or self-employment income.” She said she thought she could be eligible based on the loss of her self-employment income and her ESDC salary didn’t figure into it.
In April 2020, the eligibility criteria were clarified to “no more than $1,000 in combined employment or self-employment income” during the period.
The worker called the CRA inquiries line in March, but she just asked a general question about eligibility and didn’t give any information about herself. In the call, she said that her income from her small business was “nullified” and the CRA agent advised that she could be eligible for CERB and, if it was later determined that she wasn’t, she would have to pay back any benefits received. The worker called again in May to make sure she was still eligible, telling the agent she still worked full-time with a small business. According to the worker, she was given the same advice.
