The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) says it is prepared to take legal action against people who mistakenly received pandemic benefits but have the financial ability to pay them back to the government.
A statement from the CRA said individuals who “fail to respond or cooperate and are deemed unable to pay” will start receiving legal warnings from next month.
The CRA said if the legal warning causes people to fail to cooperate with the government, “legal action may be taken to recover any outstanding amounts.”
The CRA told CBC News in May that it had recovered roughly $1.8 billion in mispaid pandemic benefits by the end of last year. Asked for an updated total, the CRA did not provide it to CBC News.
The agency said Thursday it is continuing to work to recover $9.53 billion in overpayments related to five pandemic-related benefits.
The CRA said efforts to recover the erroneous benefits will begin in 2020 and continue through 2025.
The ministry said people who were found to be ineligible for benefits were contacted and given the opportunity to prove their eligibility or told how much they would have to pay.
In May 2022, the CRA took the additional step of sending notices to inform people that they had accrued debt on their CRA account.
The department sent letters in February 2023 to people who were told they had overreceived benefits and had not made any effort to repay them.
The government is also withholding tax refunds and other benefits to recoup funds sent to individuals who say they were not entitled to receive them.
27,000 people have their debts forgiven
The CRA says it has a variety of repayment plans available and is willing to work with Canadians who are willing to repay their debts but have limited funds.
Canadians who are told by the government that their benefit eligibility has been revoked can ask for their case to be reviewed twice.
After that, the only recourse is through the courts, and many Canadians have taken the government to court and filed lawsuits.
The federal government in May forgave at least $246 million in debt owed to thousands of Canadians who initially claimed they received pandemic benefits they were not eligible for.
The CRA told CBC News that as of April it had cancelled debts for about 27,000 people who were initially deemed ineligible but later found to be eligible.