If you applied for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), you may be confused as to why you received two payments at once. Well don’t worry – it’s not a mistake.
Treasury Board President Jean-Yves Duclos explained, during a press conference, that the second cheque is retroactive.
RELATED: B.C. Lost More Than 132,000 Jobs In March Due To COVID-19
“There are Canadians that received a retroactive payment dating from March 15, because that’s when the benefit can be applied,” said Duclos. “So from March 15 to April 11 is the first four week period, during which a $2,000 payment would have been made yesterday or perhaps today.”
While one payment is retroactive, the second is meant for the April 11th pay period. Under CERB, Canadians will get $2,000 every four weeks for up to four months.
The response benefit is similar to Employment Insurance, which helps people whose work situation has been affected by COVID-19.
To qualify, the applicant must have earned at least $5,000 in the last year and haven’t or can’t work for the next 14 days.
Applications for the benefit opened Monday and received nearly 240,000 applications before noon that day. The process is fairly simple and can be done through an application online.
So far, B.C. has lost more than 132,000 jobs with more losses expected in the future.
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