Owe ei

July 16th, 2013 by Questions

If someone owes unemployment benefits can they include them if they file bankruptcy

Posted from: Ontario

Questions

One Response to “Owe ei”



, A licensed trustee said:

Yes and no. Legally, the EI debts are included an eliminated by a bankruptcy filing, unless the government proves you committed an act of fraud or misrepresentation that caused them to keep paying you when they should have stopped. That’s the “yes” part of the answer.

The no part is more practical – since the government always claims you misrepresented the facts that caused them to keep paying you EI benefits they take the opinion that bankruptcy does not eliminate an EI overpayment. They will either claw back any benefits you receive in the future (after your bankruptcy) to recover the money or they may seize tax refunds or HST payments.

The smaller the overpayment the less likely they will try and recover it.

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