Friday, March 29, 2024
ADVT 
National

CRA delays stretch to eight to 10 weeks: watchdog

Darpan News Desk The Canadian Press, 07 May, 2021 05:12 PM
  • CRA delays stretch to eight to 10 weeks: watchdog

The Canada Revenue Agency is being taken to task by a federal watchdog for not being as up front as it should be over how long it might take to process applications for pandemic aid.

The $500-a-week Canada Recovery Benefit is paid out by the agency to qualifying workers who have earned at least $5,000 in the preceding 12 months.

In most cases, the application process is quick, but in others, the agency has to do additional digging to verify eligibility.

The taxpayers' ombudsperson said his office has received complaints that CRA call-centre agents can't offer a timeline for when verification work will be done, leaving thousands in financial hardship.

Francois Boileau said taxpayers should be able to have more details on how long it will take the agency to verify documents so they can plan how to cover their bills like rent.

He said complaints to his office have said the agency can take up to 10 weeks to finish the process before issuing a payment.

The process differs from one that was used one year ago for the CRB's forerunner, the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. Applications were quickly approved and payments issued with the government opting to do a review after-the-fact to recoup improper payments.

With the CRB, the government pushed that verification to the front of the application process, including asking for pay slips or records of employment if the agency couldn't easily confirm that someone met the earnings threshold.

Once the documents came in, the agency started the clock.

In March, there were complaints that it could take four to six weeks for the process to play out.

More recently, it has risen to eight to 10 weeks.

The agency had differing timelines referenced on different parts of its website, but updated them to in recent days after Boileau suggested the CRA do so.

"The CRA understands that the longer processing times for these recovery benefit applications may place a financial burden on Canadians who depend on these benefits as income replacement," the agency said in a statement.

"In some cases, processing times may be extended for unforeseeable reasons."

The CRA says the process shouldn't be nearly as long for anyone who filed their 2020 tax return, which would easily let the agency verify income eligibility when an application rolls in.

MORE National ARTICLES

No fines in Quebec for hotel quarantine violations

No fines in Quebec for hotel quarantine violations
The Montreal airport is one of only four in Canada where international flights are permitted to land. The Public Health Agency of Canada says at least 1,098 tickets have been issued and 15 people have been criminally charged for violations of the Quarantine Act since March 2020.

No fines in Quebec for hotel quarantine violations

Canada will take part in TRIPS talks: minister

Canada will take part in TRIPS talks: minister
In theory, a waiver would make it easier for developing countries to import the expertise, equipment and ingredients necessary to make their own vaccines.

Canada will take part in TRIPS talks: minister

AstraZeneca recipients shouldn't regret it: Quach

AstraZeneca recipients shouldn't regret it: Quach
In a statement, Quach says NACI's message wasn't meant to give AstraZeneca recipients vaccine remorse, noting the first dose has similar success at preventing hospitalization and death from COVID-19 as one dose of Pfizer or Moderna.

AstraZeneca recipients shouldn't regret it: Quach

NDP pledges 20 per cent foreign buyers' tax

NDP pledges 20 per cent foreign buyers' tax
The campaign-style promise aims to drive down increasingly unaffordable rental and home prices that have rippled beyond Toronto and Vancouver into outlying towns and cities from Nova Scotia to British Columbia's Fraser Valley.

NDP pledges 20 per cent foreign buyers' tax

Hospital turned away woman sick from shot: friend

Hospital turned away woman sick from shot: friend
Alberta chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, announced Tuesday that the death of the 52-year-old woman was due to a rare blood clot disorder — one of three such fatalities in Canada.

Hospital turned away woman sick from shot: friend

Canada 'oddly absent' from waiver debate: critics

Canada 'oddly absent' from waiver debate: critics
The idea is to make vaccine formulas and expertise more widely available so more countries could develop their own supply. Canada expressed support for the U.S. decision, but has so far refused to say whether it would also support the waiver and take part in the talks.

Canada 'oddly absent' from waiver debate: critics