Preparing for CERB to end

“We’ll benefit from the higher rate. It actually translates into two extra weeks of EI benefits for a claimant.” When CERB was first introduced, 8.5 million Canadians availed themselves of the program. Even after the economy started to return and businesses began to re-open, only 1.6 million Canadians have returned to work.

“It’s going to be a rude awakening, I think, when you all of a sudden, you don’t have that money coming,” says Nadine Cape with Kopar Administration.

It’s her job to get people back on the job rather than going onto Employment Insurance, as the federal government is working toward.

“What we’re finding right now is that we have more employers than we have job seekers. So that’s a bit of a problem.” And she says the jobs run the gamut, from clerks to mechanics and everything in between.”

But Dougherty says there might be another rude awakening for those who received CERB benefits.

“The CERB is taxable. A lot of people may not realize this, but at the end of the day, you will get a T slip from the government explaining how much CERB you received and you will have tax to pay on that because there was no withholds at source.”

He says those who collected the CERB should be setting aside 15 to 20% for the taxman.

by Cheryl Jahn

Preparing for CERB to end

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