Provincial government cost of living relief checks are issued to people who have died since they filed their 2021 tax return. (iStock)
An independent Newfoundland and Labrador politician says he has received calls from residents who have received cost-of-living checks for spouses who have recently died.
Mount Pearl-Southlands MHA Paul Lane told CBC News on Friday that so far he has heard from five people who have received checks issued to a deceased spouse.
“I guess what’s happening is they’re simply looking at 2021 [tax] statements and if you filed a statement, you’re going to get a check in the mail,” Lane said. “Of course, between then and now, obviously, people can die.”
On October 5, the Liberal government announced that it would issue a one-time relief check of up to $500 to residents who were 18 or older as of December 31 and who filed a 2021 tax return with an income of $125,000 or less. . Checks started being sent out earlier this month.
So far, the government says 110,000 checks have been processed.
Lane said he believes the rush to meet the government’s pledge to get checks into people’s hands before Christmas is likely why there have been hiccups in the plan. He said he believes there will be more problems as controls continue to be rolled out.
“I suspect there’s probably going to be people who don’t get their checks that they should, for example, and the checks go to the wrong addresses and that sort of thing,” he said. “But that’s the kind of thing that happens, I guess, when you don’t have all your ducks in a row unnecessarily before you start a program.”
Paul Lane, independent MHA for Mount Pearl-Southlands, says he believes other issues will arise as the government distributes its cost-of-living cheques. (Patrick Butler/Radio-Canada)
The province has said checks will be mailed to eligible residents based on their address registered with the Canada Revenue Agency starting in June this year.
But Jim Dinn, interim leader of the provincial NDP, questions why there isn’t a direct deposit option.
In a press release issued Friday, the NDP pointed to Prince Edward Island, which is running a similar program through the Canada Revenue Agency and uses direct deposit.
The NDP said calls are coming in from people scrambling to make sure their mailing address is up to date and some seniors are having to make plans to sign checks over to someone they trust to make the deposit on their behalf .
“If the priority was to get these funds to people efficiently, the logistics should have been worked out with the Canada Revenue Agency to send this with the quarterly GST/HST payments in October,” Dinn said in Friday’s statement.
“Those funds would be in CRA-registered accounts, and we could have focused resources on sending physical checks to the rest.”
The NDP said it asked the Liberal party why direct deposit wasn’t being used with the CRA. An email from the Department of Finance to the opposition party said: “Each individual would have had to apply individually, adding barriers to sending cheques.”
But the NDP said the PEI government recently announced no application was required.
“If these controls are meant to provide relief, get them out as efficiently as possible, don’t add steps,” Dinn said.
In an email to CBC News, Department of Finance spokeswoman Victoria Barbour said the government cannot determine who has died after filing their 2021 taxes and that checks sent to dead people should not be come back.
“In cases where payments are made to a deceased person, they should be deposited by the administrator or executor of the estate, in accordance with their authority,” he wrote.
Lane said she has been directing residents to the department’s helpline and email address if they have questions.
“I don’t want to give people false information or bad advice, frankly, and I’m not sure if the intent would be if the checks were to go with the property,” he said.
“But I don’t want to be the one to officially tell someone and then they do it and get in trouble.”
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