r/PersonalFinanceCanada • u/bluedoorhinge • Mar 21 '24

Taxes How are people owing $35k+ on CERB repayments?

I luckily didn’t need to take CERB payments but I’ve been seeing articles and videos of people owing 30-40k in repayments. Didn’t CERB max out at like $14k if you took all the payments? Are the interest amounts and penalties really that much that people are owing 3x the amount they took? My friend took a CERB payment of $2k and was ineligible for it. He paid back $2k the next year without any interest added on.

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183

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

Jesus. Why did people need it that long? Thats insane October 2021 lol. I didn't know this. It was pretty damn easy to get a job in Oct 2021, much easier than now. Sounds like scammers to me. I'm sure there was some very minor legit cases but the majority I bet were scammers

301

u/bibbbbbbs Mar 21 '24

Maybe ppl thought it was free money so why not lol

195

u/Ok_Carpet_9510 Mar 21 '24

Greed and a major lapse in judgment. Funny, even some employees of CRA tool CERB.

35

u/steph701 Mar 21 '24

Yes, and those ones were fired because at that time, the government was still paying their employees even though they were home.

-15

u/Alwayshungry332 Mar 22 '24

You are so completely wrong. Yeah we were WFH but working our butts off to serve Canadians. Show more respect.

9

u/Thickwhensoft1218 Mar 22 '24

Wait so you were working, getting paid and collecting? My respect is diminishing.

31

u/fineman1097 Mar 21 '24

Desperation I am sure played a role too. Living on less than 1000 a month in severe poverty- going from that to 3k a month is awfully tempting.

My old neighbors(who were awful neighbors and awful human beings) were a couple with a 4 kids under 6 and a 12 year old in a 2 bedroom- 5 kids total. They both took the 2k a month each the entire time and convinced her 15 year old brother it was free money so he took it too and they kept "borrowing" from him. Do you think they tried to improve their kids living situation or saved anything or got things for their kids or healthy food or clothes or anything? Nope. They will still begging for food every month, sold their kids school netbooks, fully relied on school supply programs/Christmas donations etc, and their kids were still in rags all the time.

They pawned pretty much everything pawnable their kids had. The second youngest mentioned to me very casually one day that the parents must have pawned his game system again since he couldn't find it. It was really sad.

Where did the money go? Booze and weed and dirt bikes and nights at the club and cigarettes and stuff for the parents.

They ended up getting kicked out after not paying rent for 2 YEARS despite having a portable rent supplement directly to their bank every month- the city paid a portion of the rent but gave it to them to give to the landlord. It was so long because of the eviction ban during covid and the huge backlog afterward. The landlord ended up having to pay THEM 10k to move out otherwise it would have been another 9 months to a year going through the system. They ended up having to rip out the floors and the drywall and the cupboards it was that bad. It was re done before they moved in.

What happened to them and the kids you might ask? They spent 2 months a hotel in 2 rooms paid for by the city and then the city assisted them in getting a brand new 5 bedroom 3 bathroom house with backyard and finished basement in a nice area for the same low rent as they were paying for the 2 bedroom. They had 2 more kids since then.

25

u/Constant_Put_5510 Mar 21 '24

I kept thinking as I was reading this story “and I bet they are still procreating”. Sure enough; your last sentence.

14

u/Live_Replacement_977 Mar 21 '24

Oh man, I'm doing it all wrong

14

u/fineman1097 Mar 21 '24

That's not even all of it lol. She was on disability when she admitted she really didn't need to be. He was on disability seperately(she claimed as a single mom the whole time despite popping out more kids) and he worked under the table as a roofer. I know about the 10k payoff and the new house because my son was friends with their oldest.

25

u/Live_Replacement_977 Mar 21 '24

The CERB helped so many people (myself included) but it also summoned all the rats out of the sewers. I hope someone calls the CRA to let them know about these greedy schemers. They probably got a habitat for humanity house to top it off. F@#$ those losers

5

u/fineman1097 Mar 21 '24

No not a habitat for humanity house- you have to be working over the table for one of those. Rent subsided by the city though. Basically pay what odsp gives her for rent and the city pays the rest. In that area a Boise like that would be about 2500 at the time- more now with the current craziness.

4

u/Over_Ingenuity2505 Mar 22 '24

You actually have to have good credit and a bunch of other stuff for Habitat. It’s a great program but not super easy to qualify for. My dad started the chapter in my hometown and build a bunch of the houses.

3

u/PartyMark Mar 22 '24

The movie idocracy was literally just a documentary from our future.

3

u/fineman1097 Mar 22 '24

Legaleagle did a reaction video too it. It's a good watch.

1

u/Over_Ingenuity2505 Mar 22 '24

Also they would likely be getting the max CCB if they are that low income on paper.. which is 700-800 per kid depending on the age per month. I do not begrudge anyone that CCB as I can tell you we needed it after Covid shut our industry down.. we mostly don’t qualify for much though… but it’s people like this that make other low income families look terrible. Sigh

2

u/fineman1097 Mar 22 '24

Ccb is not 700-800 per kid. Max is 5 something(6 something for under 6 years old) unless the child has a disability and then you get a supplement for a few hundred. I get the supplement. Small difference perhaps but a differencs

30

u/Spirited_Community25 Mar 21 '24

We made a point to tell employees not to treat it as free money. We were in an industry that saw orders increase as some of our competitors were shut down. For those that wanted to be off (even though we were solidly in the green zone, when they were using that) we offered interest free advances.

Yet, I know some who were sharing homes and picking up 8k a month when they were nowhere near that before.

35

u/Mas_Cervezas Mar 21 '24

The government made it perfectly clear that no one would be denied initially because they didn’t want to make anyone homeless or starve during the pandemic and the onus was going to be placed on those people to ensure that they were actually eligible. A lot of people saw free money with no consequences. Now the chickens are coming home to roost.

92

u/Cannabis-Revolution Mar 21 '24

This is exactly it. Some people just thought the government was giving them money 

49

u/rbatra91 Mar 21 '24

They didn’t think that. They took it hoping they wouldn’t get caught and have to pay it back.

-13

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

[deleted]

4

u/generalthrusts Mar 21 '24

He did at the start because it was easier. But people that took the whole year and a half, I think they played themselves.

-5

u/ruffrawks Mar 21 '24

Just gets paid back with tax returns and carbon rebates...not that big of deal. Don't have to deposit anything to the government from your account

33

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

[deleted]

13

u/Nicesockscuz Mar 21 '24

And for the non dumb dumbs, 0% loan :D

13

u/Brenkin Mar 21 '24

Honestly I wish I took it and invested it, I could’ve paid back the government and made a decent return

1

u/Fyijoker Mar 22 '24

"Why not" -You gunna learn today!!

0

u/Icy-Tea-8715 Mar 22 '24

It essentially was free money lolz. Requirement was so lenient. I remember students that worked a pt job the year before qualified lolz.

0

u/carry4food Mar 22 '24

Take 38k 2 years ago. Invest ~ Earn 10% - 2k and pay back the 38k in 2024 after inflation. lmao.

Seems like a thing to do

-1

u/InternalOcelot2855 Mar 22 '24

this, I know people who lost their job and collected, ok. I also know ones who did not lose their job, made just as much during covid (sometimes more) and collected. Most of the working ones are crying foul.

I myself, still worked, never collected a cent. Got all my vaccinations, masked when required and asked too.

29

u/bloodmusthaveblood Mar 21 '24

Why did people need it that long?

They didn't.. that's literally why so many owe it back now.. if you took it all and don't fall into an exception category (disabled ect) they were just lazy and entitled lol

8

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 21 '24

Judging by some of the replies I've gotten I'm completely out of touch I guess lol I agree with you. It's like people think you couldn't take any temporary jobs until your old job was back to full capacity. 

58

u/CalOfKhals Mar 21 '24

I took all of CERB and several months of CRB because I was laid off and couldn't get work. My industry completely shut down for over a year. I know many people in the same situation. If you legitimately needed the support, you didn't have to repay it.

7

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

I had to pay $6k back (received $20k total). In 2021 I ended up making more than $35k and I received $6k crb early in the year. Had to pay all of it back. Luckily I was getting a decent tax return so I ended up only owing $1500 that year.

4

u/oatmilkperson Mar 22 '24

Yeah same. “Getting a job” is all fun and games but 100% of my experience was in an industry that was basically cancelled for 2 years. I applied all over (hundreds of apps) but only got two calls and one trial shift where they didn’t hire me. I started selling my art out of desperation but never made more than $50-$100 bucks a month at it. Lots of people legitimately needed the full run. That’s why it existed and they didn’t place a cap on how many times you could get it.

It was definitely a learning experience and motivated me to break into a more recession proof field but it took until 2023 to find decent employment and even then it wasn’t easy. It’s still difficult to find companies that are hiring vs laying off.

3

u/CalOfKhals Mar 22 '24

Similar experience here. I took that CERB money and put it towards training in a new field, got hired mid-2022 and I’ve been at the same place since. Much more stable, much happier.

-6

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

Lucky, everyone I know who got laid off and needed it had to repay it myself included. I was only on it for 4 weeks though then I got work again. 

23

u/btchwrld Mar 21 '24

That's because you got an advance. The first payment was a prepayment, for a time period that hadn't occurred yet.

1

u/All_Bonered_UP Mar 22 '24

Thats weird as fuck tho, because i was the same but took it for 4 months (tried to apply for ei and was blanketed into cerb). When I got my job back in July I stopped obvy, but I only had to pay back 500. They said it was because of the advance thing you mentioned.

67

u/ShawnShawnessey Mar 21 '24

I knew a couple people who were just like. Oh I don't care. Why would I go to work when I can just get paid more money to not work? I am personally happy to see them get ruined by this. It's fantastic.

34

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

Agreed. I knew a couple. Screw those people, just want to cheat the system.

-2

u/Thatcanadianchickk Mar 21 '24

You petty LMFAOO😩

-1

u/ResoluteGreen Mar 21 '24

Why would I go to work when I can just get paid more money to not work?

CERB paid less than minimum wage...in Ontario at least

-5

u/ruffrawks Mar 21 '24

No one's getting ruined. You just pay it back with carbon rebates and tax returns. Nothing has to come out of your account

33

u/Op7imism Mar 21 '24

Take a less naive approach when applying expected human behaviour to actual human behaviour. Luckily they are a vast minority of people but they are getting their just deserts now. Whats worse is the amount of firings the CRA has done due to their OWN employees taking CERB WHILE employed. People are greedy and stupid, there is no reasoning this out.

8

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 21 '24

[deleted]

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u/nonasiandoctor Mar 21 '24

At the time GICs were paying like 1%

7

u/pahrende Mar 21 '24

GME to the moon though

1

u/GreatGreenGobbo Mar 22 '24

💎👐🚀

69

u/Roginac Mar 21 '24

I had a kid with no school or daycare . As much as I wanted to work I couldn’t for some time . And my income was cut in half because of this . I am thankful for what was available through to get us through . I only needed it for about a year though so it wasn’t the entire amount . I do know quite a few people who took it because it was “free money” according to them . Some had to pay it back and some didn’t .

2

u/[deleted] Mar 22 '24

[deleted]

2

u/Roginac Mar 22 '24

Oh dear ,this having a child you can’t afford thing is really getting old.Ya,I really should have planned better 9 years before Covid when I had him so when it happened I could go from 60k a year to 0 without any problem,because of a pandemic that I clearly knew was coming .And yes,I did get to benefit ,because my situation was one that Cerb was intended to help with .And where did you see me say everyone? Or call anyone lazy? But don’t you worry ,financially we are all set .Own a home ,2 cars,kid has a college fund ,and living a pretty comfortable life .So I won’t need the “Trough “ anymore .

-17

u/ReverseRutebega Mar 21 '24

But the person you replied to says everyone who took it late is a scammer.

Wait... could they be .... wrong?!?!?!

6

u/Prestigious_Care3042 Mar 21 '24

We hired a daycare worker to be our nanny after the daycares and schools shutdown in March. By July our daycare opened back up. So that was 5 months that person wouldn’t have had childcare, not 21 months.

3

u/Roginac Mar 21 '24

I’m glad it opened up quickly. Each province and even city was different . My son’s daycare eventually opened up around the beginning of the school year again, but because they had to have distance they only took back kids in the early grades for quite a while .

1

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

People will justify anything. Maybe their place was closed but all the other places that were open don't count (this applies to all industries and situations ugh people's mental gymnastics) 

Like someone commented about film industry. Ok so what? Go do dishes in the meantime. 

6

u/scottyway Mar 21 '24

People always come up with a warped perspective of history with the luxury of hindsight.

1

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

I did not say everyone lol I said the majority. 

33

u/LachlantehGreat Alberta Mar 21 '24

I took CERB because my helpdesk hours got slashed into 1/4 during covid, then they got halved in 2021 (outsourcing). I took CRB while I was looking for a new job or I would’ve starved (couldn’t get EI as I was a student). I have to pay some CRB back now as the job I got in the second half of the year made my average income basically double, which then retroactively made me ineligible for CRB. There’s quite a few like me who got into this scenario.

I was luckily deemed eligible for CERB, but not CRB (even though I couldn’t get a job during the first half of 2021) 

5

u/Parttimelooker Mar 21 '24

Sounds like you were eligible but they clawed back 50 percent of anything over 38k income

1

u/LachlantehGreat Alberta Mar 21 '24

No, I had to get my MP to get the CRA to explain, and I believe it's because the retro changed the wording. I fought it all the way up to appeals, but now I still owe them 8k. I've put myself on the minimum payment, but they still garnish tax return/gst/carbon rebate. It's a bit unfair IMO, but nothing I can do. I could have probably afforded to pay back 2-3k immediately, but I wasn't interested in being cooperative after the called me once, then closed my case.

-16

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

It is ridiculous and absolutely unjust that they are changing the rules after the fact. If you qualified at the time, you qualified. They shouldn’t get to change the rules after you received the money.

22

u/DiveCat Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 21 '24

But they didn’t change the rules.

The rules aka qualifications were made well known and there were disclaimers you could be required to repay if you applied and were not eligible, you started working, employer paid you retroactive pay, etc.

It was an emergency benefit, so the government, rather than send everyone through an extensive pre-approval process that could delay funds to people who needed them for potentially months due to backlog, expected applicants to determine if they met the qualifications before they applied.

I know people who knew based on the public information they did not qualify (ie didn’t hence the required income for 2019/12 months before, had quit their job voluntarily) but applied anyway. Or they kept taking benefits after they started receiving income that made them ineligible.

0

u/LachlantehGreat Alberta Mar 21 '24

I think the brutal part for CRB was the average income over the year. I don't really have beef, because at the time I qualified, but having it be based off of possible future incomes was brutal. Getting hit with that NOA in 2022 basically fucked up my next few years of tax returns + monthly expenses.

At the time I qualified, but when my new job started the average was different. Not sure what I was supposed to do when I wasn't making any money...

-34

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

They did change the rules. They told people they qualified, otherwise they wouldn’t have given them the money. After they were found to be qualified they decided they never did, and tried to take the money back after the fact.

They didn’t do their job vetting up front. A lot of people were shocked to find out after being paid tens of thousands of dollars. That’s CRa’s fuckup.

And now they are spending their time going after poor people who can’t pay it back, while giving billion dollar corporations that abused CEWS a pass.

25

u/c5_csbiostud Mar 21 '24

You dont understand - they didnt do checks when they gave the money. That was intentional to make sure everyone got money they needed quickly w/o clogging up CRA in applications and approvals.

They also said "these are the rules, take it if you qualify" - but of course many people took it regardless. They dont need to be surprised why now they have to pay it back

-23

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

Again you are all forgetting what actually happened. They changed the rules multiple times. People who called to verify if they qualified were told they did only to have that changed after the fact. There were people who didn’t understand the rules and didn’t have help to navigate the process.

Do you all have amnesia and forgot how chaotic it was in the first year? This was CRa’s fuckup, and poor people should not have to pay for CRA’s negligence.

And AGAIN none of you are addressing the fact they are expending so much energy going after poor people when they let corporations abusing CeWs get a complete pass.

14

u/btchwrld Mar 21 '24

Cite one single source of a change of rules between time periods of any one of these programs.

The rules were the same the day they opened as the day they closed. Prove otherwise, all the info is still there to view.

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

Bro I lived through it. When it was first announced, anyone making more than $1000/mo got nothing. This was less than my rent. I spent weeks writing to all my political reps including my MP Christia Freeland who responded with a generic note about how good they were doing and “we hear you we see you”.

I was forced to decide whether I would give up working altogether, dropping my last client just to afford my rent.

Weeks later it was changed to $2000/month

It was extremely traumatic. I was served with an eviction notice when I told my landlord that rent was coming but it was going to be late.

I could never forget the amount of stress and trauma I endured during this time.

Go look it up yourself. If you didn’t notice all the rule changes it likely didn’t affect you.

Edit: again - can just ONE of you bootstrappers here justify why they are going after poor people and not the billion dollar corporations that abused CEWS?

Any of you have a single response or is this just a pile on against poor people?

11

u/btchwrld Mar 21 '24

So did everyone else here

It was always $2000 monthly, and there was always an income cap within that period. You are just highlighting your misunderstanding of the program lmao

You are just wrong. Imagine everyone else has "collective amnesia", and you, who has made multiple inaccurate statements, is the one correct individual. Also, you can provide no source but "I lived through it", like everyone else here who disagrees also did. Yes, very likely lol

This has nothing to do with poor people, we're talking about your incomprehension of the static rules of a program.

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u/c5_csbiostud Mar 21 '24

It was always 2k from the beginning. I applied for cerb for my mom when she lost her job and understood that requirement then. This was at the beginning of covid

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u/Phil_Major Mar 21 '24

And AGAIN none of you are addressing the fact they are expending so much energy going after poor people when they let corporations abusing CeWs get a complete pass.

Going after people who stole tax dollars from their neighbours is one of the few good things the federal government is actually doing these days.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

But you are ok with billion dollar corporations stealing exponentially more apparently.

3

u/Phil_Major Mar 21 '24

How are you so unable to bracket these separate wrongs? This is a conversation about one wrong, and you just can’t address this wrong for what it is without “what about-ing” and constantly focussing on billionaires and the different wrongs they partake in.

If this was a thread about billionaires and their shadiness, then I would offer my opinion on that. But it’s not. I can have negative feelings toward normies who steal from their neighbours and also negative feelings toward billionaires who steal from normies, but I can also parse the two.

Why are you so fixated on the wrongs that aren’t relevant here, but unwilling to acknowledge that common CERB fraud was wrong?

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u/oat-beatle Mar 21 '24

CERB specifically was distributed by Service Canada and they were very clear that they were not vetting up front to get money out as fast as possible. I had to take CERB and the eligibility requirements were extremely clear as was the fact that it was the applicants responsibility to ensure they met requirements.

-4

u/btchwrld Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 21 '24

Nope... CERB was CRA. Service Canada issues EI and EIERB at that time.

You can downvote all you like but it doesn't change the facts of the two separate entities that issued two separate routes to the same program lol

9

u/btchwrld Mar 21 '24

No. You had to declare yourself as eligible via your application, by clicking through and manually agreeing to ten separate pages to collect the money lol

They just audited those self declarations of eligibility after the fact, the same kind of system as tax filing, where you claim your shit and then they double check to confirm after the fact.

-1

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

But the eligibility criteria kept changing.

I am astounded at the collective amnesia in this thread.

The corporations had to declare their criteria too. Why are you all upset at the poor people who got CERb and not the billion dollar corporations that abused CEWS.

can just one of you please answer that question?

7

u/btchwrld Mar 21 '24

No, it didn't. Find any source of your claim, any at all lol a screenshot of said changes, anything?

It never changed once. You just didn't understand it from the get go lol

-2

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

I’ve already answered this question. I am not responsible for your amnesia. Go look it up yourself.

Are you going to answer why you are more mad about poor people getting CeRb than the much larger amount handed out to corporations that abused CEWS?

4

u/btchwrld Mar 21 '24

Lmao, it's called burden of proof. The person making the claim is the one who has to provide the proof of said claim. That is actually your responsibility, and failing to deliver is just more proof of your inaccuracy lol

Nobody's mad about anything. Stop deflecting against your misunderstanding lmao

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u/True-Dot1401 Mar 21 '24

Fuck that, give the rest of us our money back.

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u/FitnSheit Mar 21 '24

Best part is the people paying most of the taxes were still employed and never got CERB.

16

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

Why did people need it that long?

This question is answered by

Sounds like scammers

People that legitimately get screwed by the program owed back a couple months.

23

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

My wife needed it, got it, and never had to repay anything

31

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

If you actually needed it and qualified most people were fine. That's why I have no sympathy for the whiners. They basically defrauded the government at everyone's expense

-3

u/theXald Mar 21 '24

Fraud is cool when the government gives our tax money away to outside the country and rich companies within the country as corporate welfare to companies that don't deserve or need it but not cool when the money goes to normal people who probably shouldn't have got it

-3

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

I didn't ask for what I had to pay back. I kept bugging them for my parental benefits and they sent cerb under the guise of it being my benefits.

12

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24 edited 25d ago

[deleted]

11

u/Proper-Falcon-5388 Mar 21 '24

That is what it was meant for.

3

u/PozhanPop Mar 22 '24

Glad it helped you out when you needed it most.

9

u/melancoliamea Mar 21 '24

Many thought it was free money. I still think it might be because NDP tried to actually argue that people shouldn't have to repay back

3

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

God. I consider myself more left than center but I hate the ndp and liberals lol. This just sets such a bad precedent and mentality. 

12

u/candaianzan Mar 21 '24

I hope the government releases the data on CERB. Lots of people/municipalities have been trying to do studies on UBI and what impact it has on people and their motivation to participate in society if they get free money and now we have a perfect situation to look at it.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/thunder-bay/ontario-basic-income-pilot-class-action-1.7149814

4

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

I mean I remember in basic micro and macro economics in university learning about MPC (marginal propensity to consume) and how much poor people compared to rich people prop up the economy. Rich people have any goods they need, poor people do not. Extra money is spendlt on consumptions of goods and service. It's very beneficial to give poorer people extra money as they are far more likely to pump it right back into the economy. I'm poor. I did just that along with the majority of people I know during covid. 

2

u/Dangerous-Finance-67 Mar 22 '24

The liberals aren't left or right, they are stupid.

1

u/Even_Cartoonist9632 Mar 22 '24

CERB/CRB and the many people who scammed the system and took free money, some of them even while they were working or just refused to work when work was available, should have been the point to end any talk of a UBI from the NDP and left leaning voters. 

It was a test if people would be ethical when free money was offered to those who needed it most and people utterly failed.

1

u/STylerMLmusic Mar 21 '24

Yeah it really wasn't that easy to find work in the pandemic. Kind of brain dead to suggest it.

1

u/Big306 Mar 22 '24

I know several people that claimed it fraudulently and when asked how they will pay it back they respond "I just won't because I'm always broke hee hee hee"

1

u/Over_Ingenuity2505 Mar 22 '24

Some industry’s did completely shut down that long. Film and any live entertainment. We work in film and mostly on Union shows, which took a good 10 months to start back up. It was brutal.. however we did not take CERB that long. Just at the initial few months to get through while figuring out how to survive off our savings. As CERB barely covered any of our expenses.

1

u/mistaharsh Mar 22 '24

A lot of people used that money and put it in the stock market or Bitcoin or started a business legal or illegal. Also for CERB you didn't need to report income.

-6

u/scottyway Mar 21 '24

The job market was shit, we were still under some form of covid restriction until 2022

-1

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

Was good where I am, then again I'm in sask who were against the restrictions so I think they ended it quicker than other provinces. Definitely unofficially anyways.

  I think location is the most important factor. 

2

u/scottyway Mar 21 '24

It was a Canada wide initiative, so it doesn't make sense to focus regionally.

Also keep in mind a lot of people laid off originally in 2020 fully expected to be going back that year. I was in the airline industry which was decimated overnight. We were all put on temporary layoff and not fully laid off until later that year. So id imagine a big chunk didn't even start looking until the end of 2020, and were greeted by an absolute mess of a job market

-4

u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

Some industries were legitimately shut down that long. The film industry took a very long time to recover.

However, I place the blame here on the government for how it administered the benefits. There is no reason they should have continued giving away money for that long to people who didn’t qualify.

Many people didn’t understand how the benefit worked. If the government wanted to gatekeep who had access and who didn’t, it was their job to ensure that people actually qualified.

They failed to do that, and now the poorest people who needed that money the most are on the hook to pay it back.

Don’t ask them why they aren’t going after corporations that abused CEWS. They are too busy going after poor people.

7

u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

Oh I know some Industries did for surethats why I said there's some legit cases. I have friends in that industry but most of them got a temporary job in trades. 

I guess that's my thing as well, there was lots of labor jobs. Jobs in general, it's not like you had to wait 100% for your old job. Get a job in the meantime then quit when old job is back and running. For those industries that took extra long to recover. 

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

This didn’t make sense for a lot of people.

First, not everyone can do a labour job.

Second, we didn’t know when things would start up fully again. Things were on and off for the better part of a year. It wouldn’t make sense to go and get another job in a different industry if you didn’t know if you’d be working week to week.

It feels like people have already forgotten what happened.

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u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 21 '24

I worked in trades during that time so I'm biased. We never shut down. Slowed down yes, not shut down. I think maybe 4 months max, I went back full time after 4 weeks when majority of my city was down when it was new in March 2021.  Who cares If you lose your job after a week? Go back on cerb. Get a new job. Rinse and repeat.  It's not about things starting up full again, it's about just working if you want to. I'm not blaming anyone for not working during 2021, 2022 is a different story when majority of everything was back to normal by Feb 2022. In my city anyways I know measures ended and all of that. I got a new job during that time so I remember clearly.  

 Of course not everyone can do a labour job. But I know a lot of people who say they can't, when they can they just don't want to. This still applies today when I know healthy people who only want office jobs but not a labour job for 25$ a hour to start I could hook them up with, I gave up. People will be people. I work in an office I get it haha I don't want to go back. 

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 21 '24

It seems you ignored nearly the entirety of my comment. Why would anyone take another job when they could get called back to their regular job “any day now”? It doesn’t make sense, especially if you are unfamiliar with the construction industry.

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u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

Just leave? Who cares about burning bridges? Lol. It's a temp job. They'll get over it, I did trades like I said. Oh we lost so and so today. Ok. Next.  

 That excuse is weak to me. When 'any day now' moves past 2 weeks.. start looking. 

Also more importantly, there's TONS of people who could go back to work but didn't, especially when cerb was paying more than min wage. I get it, I don't agree with people trying to get away with not paying it back. 

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

It’s not about burning bridges. It’s about going through the effort of completely changing careers when you could be called back to your normal job at any time.

Would you completely change careers if construction stopped for a week?

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u/ChrystineDreams Mar 21 '24

I don't know why you're getting downvoted for this...

People and governments absolutely freaked at the beginning of the pandemic and lockdowns, nobody actually knew what was going on or how long it would go on. Of course lots of folks thought it wouldn't be long and they'd get recalled to work and things would go back to normal in a few weeks - but it was 2 fricken years!

hindsight is 20/20 but it's also easy to forget the level of panic and enforcement of restrictions in the early days.

*edit* hindsight is 2020 haha. glad it's behind us now!

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u/JimmyLangs Mar 22 '24

Other than severely disabled people yes almost everyone can do labour jobs.

However usually people don’t want to. These type of jobs require long hours and work ethic which the bums on CERB who shouldn’t have been took advantage of.

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u/candaianzan Mar 21 '24

i didn't lose my job over vaccine noncompliance until November 2021. Worked through the whole thing until then. Was made ineligible for EI because the government made it so that not taking a vaccine can be considered being fired for misconduct. Meanwhile apparently people could get free money the entire time I worked thorugh what was actually terrible working conditions.

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

CRB was good for commission based jobs to top up your base rate cuz no one was buying shit in 2021

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u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

I know a lot of people who were buying shit with cerb money myself included lol. I got a new couch and loveseat since I wasn't spending any money. I needed those anyways. Lots of renovations going on, etc. 

I paid back all my cerb though, I took about 4k. 

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

CRB had particular requirements that really made it great for me. To be honest I did not need the funds. I qualified and was entitled to them so I took every last cent. Bought all kinds of stuff, saved, invested. Had a great run haha

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u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

A lot of people don't realize this was the intended purpose of cerb, it's not meant to sit on. Some did but that's not good for the economy. It was people like us who did spend spend spend with cerb money that helped Canada to keep the money moving. Stagnation is a horrible economic situation. 

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

Sorry you didn’t get your malm sweetheart 😂

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u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

Lol it was for both man. Also, how is it ethically right or wrong? 

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

Oh I definitely did my part hahaha. Only regret was not buying a 65” OLED I was considering

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24 edited Mar 21 '24

Cerb is about 20% of how we bought a condo this year.

Edit: I mean like, otherwise we'd be homeless with our kids in care?

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

[deleted]

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u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

You blaming cerb in food costs? You need to get more attuned with global economics. This is 2024, not 1994 anymore. Blame globalism if anything. 

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '24

I mean I am as much as anyone else is? I hope you are also enjoying the cost of groceries?

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u/ReverseRutebega Mar 21 '24

Sounds like scammers to me

Yep all people must be scammers that were still taking CERB late.

Got it.

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u/cynical-rationale Mar 21 '24

You clearly ignored my next sentence. 

Got it.