OTTAWA — The federal government says it has paid out about $258 million to low-income seniors who were wrongly denied the guaranteed income supplement.
And it may pay out more: the government says it will cover cost-of-living increases so the payments keep track with inflation, and cover the value of any lost tax credits or benefits that arose because of a mistake eight years ago.
Exactly how much more the government will owe isn't clear.
In May 2015, the government began reviewing about 141,000 cases where benefits were not renewed between 2008 and 2013 because of late tax returns, excess earnings, changes in marital status or recipients leaving Canada for more than six months.
The guaranteed income supplement, or GIS, is a monthly non-taxable benefit provided to low-income seniors in Canada.
Starting in 2007, the government began using tax and income information from the Canada Revenue Agency to automatically determine whether an individual was eligible for the benefit top-up.
In July 2015, then-social development minister Pierre Poilievre was notified that 10,000 seniors had received retroactive payments, just as the previous government was negotiating new income supplement agreements with the provinces and territories.
On Thursday, Employment and Social Development Canada said about 86,500 of the 141,000 cases reviewed should have received the benefit. The department says it is waiting to see if a further 9,000 could be eligible for back payments.
Each retroactive payment is worth an average of $1,950.
