Waste · The full story
COVID Benefits: The CRA Says About $14B Went to People Who Didn’t Qualify. Ottawa’s Books Doubt $10.5B Comes Back.
The CRA says about $14B in COVID benefits went to people who did not qualify, after Ottawa chose to pay on a signed promise and check later. At 31 March 2025 its own books set aside $10.5B of the $13.0B in overpayments owed back as money it does not expect to collect.
By Grant Levy Published Updated Tap any number for its source
COVID benefit overpayments: owed back, and set aside as doubtful
CRA figures via CBC News, 2026; Public Accounts 2025, Vol. I
What happened
What the three biggest programs paid
Auditor General, Report 10, December 2022
- Spring 2020The CERB opens “with an attestation-based application process, rather than upfront controls”, as the employment department later told MPs. Public Accounts committee, evidence, 2 Feb 2023
- Mar 2021The two departments answer the Auditor General’s first report on the CERB and defend the design. ESDC and CRA joint statement, 25 Mar 2021
- Dec 2022The Auditor General finds $4.6B paid to people who were not eligible, and at least $27.4B that should be investigated further. Auditor General, Report 10, Dec 2022
What the Auditor General found, and what it flagged
Auditor General, Report 10, December 2022
- Feb 2023The CRA tells MPs it blocked 700,000 applicants using tax data before paying. Public Accounts committee, evidence, 2 Feb 2023
- Mar 2025The Public Accounts carry $13.0B in COVID overpayments owed back, with $10.5B of it set aside as doubtful. Public Accounts 2025, Vol. I
- Jul 2026The CRA’s figures: $3.7B paid back, $5.6B still owed. CBC News, CRA figures, 18 Sep 2026
Speed was the point. The checking was left for later, and later is still going.
Who decided
Application · COVID benefits · 2020
- Proof of eligibility
- A signed attestation
- Checked
- After payment
- Flagged for further investigation (AG)
- $27.4B
- Employment and Social Development Canada and the CRA. chose to pay on the applicant’s word and verify later. The Auditor General says they “decided early on to focus less on confirming the eligibility” of applicants. Auditor General, Report 10, Dec 2022
- The CRA. decides which overpayment debts it writes off as uncollectable for accounting purposes. It says the debt itself “is not cancelled”. CBC News, CRA figures, 18 Sep 2026
- The Receiver General, in the Public Accounts. records an allowance for doubtful accounts: $10.5B of the overpayments owed back, at 31 March 2025. Public Accounts 2025, Vol. I
The choice was the departments’, made in the open, and defended since.
What the money bought
Income for millions of people who lost work in the spring of 2020: $74.8B through the CERB and the EI emergency benefit, then $28.4B through the Recovery Benefit. Auditor General, Report 10, Dec 2022
Wages kept on the payroll: $100.7B through the wage subsidy. Auditor General, Report 10, Dec 2022
And about $14B to people the CRA says did not qualify, mostly because their income did not meet the rules. This is not a fraud total. CBC News, CRA figures, 18 Sep 2026
Most of the money did what it was meant to. The question is the part that did not.
Their figure, and the full cost
The CRA’s count, followed through
CRA figures via The Canadian Press, Dec 2025, and CBC News, Sep 2026
Their figureThe CRA’s figure: $5.6B still owed at 31 July 2026, down from $10.4B in November 2025.
The full costThe government’s own books carry an allowance for doubtful accounts of $10.5B on COVID overpayments, and the Auditor General flagged at least $27.4B of payments for further investigation.
- Start with what the CRA says went to people who did not qualify: $14B. CBC News, CRA figures, 18 Sep 2026
- A CRA spokesperson told The Canadian Press that the agency was owed $10.4B at 30 November 2025. The Canadian Press (via BNN Bloomberg), CRA spokesperson, 31 Dec 2025
- By July 2026, by the CRA’s figures as CBC News reported them, what is owed was $5.6B, with $3.7B paid back in all. Repayments “only account for a portion of the debt reduction”, CBC reports, citing the CRA; the balance also moves with “changes in eligibility and writeoffs”. Our read: a relabelled debt is not a repaid one. CBC News, CRA figures, 18 Sep 2026
- The Public Accounts count every COVID overpayment owed back: $13.0B, of which $10.5B is set aside as doubtful. Public Accounts 2025, Vol. I
What the full measure cannot reach yet: the CRA has not published its count in a document of its own, nor its write-offs of these debts by program. Where the money between the CRA’s figures went, nobody has said.
Their best case
Put as they would put it, in their own words.
- The ministers responsible, December 2022. The government “needed to act decisively to save lives and the economy”. Ministers’ statement, 6 Dec 2022
- The two departments, 2021. They describe a “simple and straightforward application with back-end verifications”, built to get money out fast. ESDC and CRA joint statement, 25 Mar 2021
- The CRA, at committee, 2023. It used tax data to block 700,000 applicants, which it says prevented $5.0B in more ineligible payments. Public Accounts committee, evidence, 2 Feb 2023
- The CRA, 2026. A debt deemed uncollectable for accounting purposes is not cancelled, and collection goes on. CBC News, CRA figures, 18 Sep 2026
Our read
COVID benefit overpayments: owed back, and set aside as doubtful
CRA figures via CBC News, 2026; Public Accounts 2025, Vol. I
Paying fast in the spring of 2020 was a defensible call, and most of the money reached people who qualified. That is their best case, and it is fair.
But check later was the promise that made it defensible. Our read: the government chose speed, the Auditor General flagged at least $27.4B for further investigation, and the books now carry $10.5B as doubtful.
Pay first, check later. Later is an allowance for doubtful accounts.
Still open
- The CRA’s own count. The figure of money paid to people who did not qualify, and what is repaid and owed, come from CRA figures given to CBC News and The Canadian Press. The document that settles it is the CRA’s own release, or its answer to a committee or an Order Paper question.
- The gap. The CRA’s figures leave part of the ineligible total neither repaid nor owed. Its write-offs of COVID benefit debts, by program, would show where it went.
- The follow-through. Whether the departments finished the checks they promised. An Auditor General follow-up audit would settle it.
The next read
The COVID benefits are one item in the full count of federal overruns, failures and improper payments.
The waste file