B.C. unfairly clawed back COVID-19 benefit to thousands, ombudsperson's report says

mA report says thousands of people in British Columbia saw their $1,000 COVID-19 benefit unfairly clawed back by the provincial government.

Thousands of people in British Columbia saw their $1,000 tax-free COVID-19 benefit unfairly clawed back by the provincial government, says an ombudsperson report.

So far, 12,000 people have been told to repay their B.C. Emergency Benefit that the government said was for workers who had been affected by the pandemic, Ombudsperson Jay Chalke said Tuesday.

He said his report, "No Notice, No Benefit," examined how retroactive changes by the provincial government, requiring applicants to meet a deadline for filing their 2019 taxes to be eligible, saw people having to pay back the benefit.

The claw back resulted because the government didn't properly communicate the deadline and by the time it was announced retroactively, 90 per cent of applicants had applied for the cash, Chalke said at a news conference.

He said the original benefit application when the program started in May 2020 did not set any firm deadline for people to have filed their 2019 income taxes, only that they had either filed or agreed to file.

Legislation introduced eight weeks later set a Jan. 1, 2021, deadline for filing the tax return.

But applicants were not told the retroactive change made them ineligible, said Chalke, who recommended the government give those people 90 days to file their 2019 taxes, allowing forgiveness of the debt or return of the benefit.