The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has fired more than 200 people for falsely claiming federal income benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The CRA says that as of March 15, 232 employees “inappropriately applied for and received” the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and were laid off, an increase of 47 since December.
The CERB paid $2,000 per month to Canadians whose jobs were lost due to public health restrictions during the pandemic.
They must repay the CERB funds they received if they have not already done so.
The agency launched an internal review that identified 600 employees for further investigation, but not all would have been ineligible for the benefit because some were students or term employees.
The CRA says case-by-case reviews conducted so far have confirmed that 133 employees correctly received the benefit, leaving approximately 235 files to review.
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