It’s Not Automatic:  How to Continue Receiving the CERB

Beth Graddon

Most Canadians who applied for the CERB for the first period of March 15-April 11 should have received their payments of $2,000 by now. However, the process has now changed from the initial guidelines released by the government for those who want to continue to access these benefits. Here’s what you need to know:

What’s required to continue to receive the CERB? It still depends on how you applied initially based on your work situation. And now, based on newly introduced guidelines, whether or not you were collecting EI prior to the pandemic.

Plus, there are now ongoing reporting requirements if you’re receiving the CERB through the EI program, and everyone needs to be without income for the full month to qualify. They’re murky waters to navigate. Here’s what you need to do to receive the CERB payment uninterrupted, based on the information currently available from the government.

If you are self-employed, or don’t typically qualify for EI benefits. Your initial application should have been submitted through the CRA and the first deposit into your bank account should have read CERB. Moving forward, you can receive the next CERB payments for the following periods:

What to do: You simply need to re-apply for the benefit once that period begins on the day of the week available to you based on your birth month. Here’s the details on that requirement:

Once you’ve submitted your application for the period, the lump sum $2,000 amount will then be deposited in your account within 3-days if you signed up for direct deposit, or 10-days by cheque.But there are some catches to be aware of:

• When submitting your first claim, you cannot have earned more than $1,000 in employment and/or self-employment income for 14 or more consecutive days within the four-week benefit period of your claim.
• When submitting claims for subsequent periods (for the first time or when continuing to collect the CERB), you cannot have earned more than $1,000 in employment and/or self-employment income for the entire four-week benefit period of your new claim. Prior to April 16, the income threshold was changed from $0 in earnings to $1,000. If these new criteria makes you eligible, it appears as though you can now apply and receive backdated payments for past periods.

In addition, although this benefit is available through a period ending September 26 currently, each individual can only receive the benefit for a total of 16-weeks (four 4-week periods).

Continuing to receive the CERB if you’re eligible for EI. Although the government initially stated that submitting standard EI reports would not be a requirement as all EI-eligible people would be transferred to the CERB program, it appears that to continue to receive benefits, that is no longer the case.

Receiving the EI (Service Canada)-CERB benefit will not deplete your eligibility for standard EI in the future, however, filing the standard EI reports will be necessary to receive the next CERB payments. If you’ve yet to receive an expected payment, and have not yet filed a report, you should access your account in order to do so.

However, here’s where it gets complicated. EI reporting dates and periods still seem to be setup like standard EI reports and Canadians are being asked to file reports for dates covered by CERB payments they’ve already received, which is perplexing many people about their eligibility. Although it appears the government is still not conducting extensive eligibility verification prior to issuing payments, these reports will certainly be used to do so after the fact, as we reported earlier this week.

Some are also reporting receiving $2,000 lump sum payments, while others have reported receiving $500 or $1,000 payments. So, it remains unclear exactly when and how those receiving the CERB through the EI program should be receiving their money going forward.

Note: the same income threshold criteria for each period still applies to claim the CERB through the EI-Service Canada program, as outlined above.

The bottom line: continue to submit reports per the dates indicated on your Service Canada account to receive your money and ensure that you’re receiving no more than $2,000 each month. Otherwise, anything received over and above that will need to be repaid to the government in the future. This will also be the case if you reported any income above the limits allowed for the month and still received a payment. Your Service Canada account indicates what period each payment you received was issued for, which will help with any future reconciliation.

Also note, that under this program you are still only eligible for a maximum of 16-weeks of benefits. However, if you remain unemployed and are eligible, you can transfer back to the standard EI program.

What if you start working again after you get a CERB payment and then stop working? For both programs, you need to re-apply for the CERB. However, you must also confirm that you won’t have income for at least 14-days in a row for the period that you’re applying for.

We’ll keep you in the loop if the application process or guidelines change in the future.

Additional educational resources: get all the technical details of the COVID-19 Canada Emergency Response provisions by enrolling in the Virtual CE Summits. It’s a sought-after educational event from Knowledge Bureau in a new format: a professional online course plus interactive live virtual meeting. The online learning release will be available April 22 on the Virtual Campus, and the interactive Zoom event will take place on May 22. 

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