If you are self-employed and were told you have to repay the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), you might be in luck.
Multiple news outlets are reporting that self-employed people who had to shut down their businesses or missed out on income because of the COVID-19 pandemic won’t have to repay CERB as they were initially told.
BNN Bloomberg says around 441,000 Canadians received letters saying they would have to repay the benefits they received because they didn’t qualify. However, some of those people are now being told the opposite is true.
The confusion stems from people who accessed CERB based on their gross income instead of their net income.
In a news conference, prime minister Justin Trudeau said those people won’t have to return the payments as long as they met all of the other eligibility criteria.
If you are unsure about whether or not you need to repay CERB, you can contact the federal government by calling 1-800-959-8281 or visiting canada.ca.