The CRA has fired 185 staffers for inappropriately claiming CERB

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has fired 185 employees for “inappropriately” claiming the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

This is an update on an internal review process the CRA launched on June 30, investigating approximately 600 cases.

The staffers were not all let go together. This number represents all workers who have been dropped since CERB kicked in as a program aimed at helping Canadians financially affected by the pandemic with monthly payments of up to $2,000.

In July, the CRA said it had fired 20 employees who received CERB while employed at the agency. By September, 100 more employees had their contracts terminated for the same reason.

The organization clarified that being a current employee of the CRA doesn’t necessarily mean someone was ineligible for CERB.

“Out of the approximately 600 cases, we can report that 120 individuals are no longer with the CRA as a result of this internal review,” the agency said in a statement on September 1.

“Any CRA employee who inappropriately received the CERB will be required to repay the amounts if they haven’t already done so,” the agency told Daily Hive in an email on Wednesday.

It stressed that it takes any form of wrongdoing very seriously and is firmly committed to protecting the integrity of Canada’s tax and benefit systems and “demonstrating to Canadians that the CRA is a trusted and fair organization.”

“The actions of some should in no way undermine the honesty and integrity of the thousands of CRA employees who work every day in an exemplary manner to serve Canadians.”

Canadians’ trust in the CRA has taken a hit over the past few years.

Court documents released in August last year revealed that in 2020, thousands of CRA accounts were hacked and used to file fraudulent CERB applications.

During the summer months, tens of thousands of suspicious login attempts were made to take advantage of the program.

Hackers could successfully log in to at least 48,110 CRA profiles using the proper credentials during the breach. Of these, 21,860 did not see more fraudulent activity following the unauthorized login.

But in the case of 12,700 taxpaying Canadians, their CRA direct deposit information was successfully changed. Sometimes, multiple CERB applications were submitted through a single profile. The hackers even managed to make monetary claims.

The breach has resulted in a major class action against the Canadian government. It is helmed by Todd Sweet, a former police officer based in Clinton, BC, who had been victimized by the fraud.

He alleged that the CRA was “negligent in safeguarding the confidential information of Canadians, leading to widespread privacy breaches.”

In October this year, a Quebec man who formerly processed child benefit applications for the CRA was sentenced to jail time for falsely claiming tax credits and benefits worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) announced that on October 20, Wayne Kendall Jr. was sentenced at the Trois-Rivières Courthouse to 18 months behind bars, followed by a two-year probation.

In a press release, the federal agency said that Kendall Jr. had pleaded guilty to making false or deceptive statements and forgery on March 10, 2023.

During an investigation, it was found that from 2015 to 2018, Kendall Jr. had fraudulently obtained over $377,000 by submitting false claims for tax credits and benefits.