Canadians who’ve been relying on the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) to make ends meet during COVID-19 say there’s a sense of desperation and panic as the program nears its end later this month.
Stephanie Cohen was receiving EI payments before the pandemic as a result of losing her job as a copywriter at a digital marketing agency in Montreal. She transitioned to CERB in May and the $2,000 has kept her going since then.
The money has helped her pay basic bills and assisted her mother in buying groceries and other home necessities. Even though it’s less than what she was making at her work, it provided a much-needed financial boost and a little bit of “peace of mind” during a difficult period. Having zero income “would have been devastating,” she said.
As others do, she knows very little about the new benefits that will be offered to jobless Canadians starting Sept. 27.
“It is a pretty big concern, considering I’m in the category of people who exhausted their previous EI benefits,” Cohen said.
She’s especially worried new recovery programs, which are just proposals at this point and won’t be solidified until after the government’s Speech from the Throne on Sept. 23, will ignore people such as she, who were job-hunting prior to COVID-19. The pandemic, she said, put her hunt on hold and the economic hit to business across a variety of sectors makes it hard to know when people will start hiring again.
“I haven’t been able to receive a clear answer as to how I move forward,” she said about the lack of information on the upcoming benefit programs. “If I am not eligible to re-apply for EI, I’ll have zero income coming in, which would be a hard blow for me financially.”
A recent analysis from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives warned millions of Canadians who depended on CERB will be hard hit by the upcoming change.
CERB had been instrumental in helping Jordan Troy, a Guelph resident who had just completed college and was looking for a job as an elevator mechanic when the pandemic hit. The 23-year-old said he recently started working a few hours a week at local restaurants when they reopened, but still makes less than $1,000 per month.
“I’m worried, of course. I don’t know if I will qualify for EI or any of the new programs, and there is no information right now,” he said. “At least with CERB, you knew you weren’t going to go hungry or miss a rent payment. Now everything is up in the air.”
Nick Cunningham had been working in the live music industry at a Toronto talent agency, helping with the booking of venues and organizing tours for Canadian artists. For the first few months of the pandemic, his agency managed to keep a small group of employees at work as they helped artists run virtual concerts and drive-in shows. But he was laid off last month.
“Everything was so sudden. I was working one day and the next day I wasn’t,” said Cunningham. “These past six months have been incredibly stressful, with so much uncertainty and repeated work, it felt like groundhog day every day, until I lost my job.”
So far, Cunningham has collected the CERB just twice. While he said he’s grateful for the support, he is “scared” that the switch to EI and other programs could leave him short of what he needs to get by.
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“It’s already hard to survive in Toronto on $2,000, and I feel like it’s about to get even harder with these new changes,” said Cunningham, who says special support for people in the live music industry is needed.
“Our government is not doing anything to address this industry’s shutdown, and I am getting anxious. I have spent my entire life getting to where I am now, and unfortunately things feel bleak with the soon-to-be removal of CERB.”
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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMinAFodHRwczovL3d3dy50aGVzdGFyLmNvbS9uZXdzL2d0YS8yMDIwLzA5LzE3L2Rlc3BlcmF0aW9uLXNldHMtaW4tYXMtY2VyYi1pcy1zZXQtdG8tZW5kLXRoZXNlLXRocmVlLWNhbmFkaWFucy1hcmUtYW1vbmctdGhlLW1pbGxpb25zLWxpdmluZy1vbi10aGUtYnViYmxlLmh0bWzSAQA?oc=5
2020-09-18 00:11:15Z
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