From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency cuts off elderly woman’s tax benefit : CRA SOTW   
      
   Canada Revenue Agency cuts off elderly woman’s tax benefit after deciding   
   she’s dead   
   Maria Francisco, very much alive, struggled to straighten things out because   
   she’s illiterate and in-person services have ended.   
      
   By:Patty Winsa News reporter, Published on Sat Oct 19 2013    
      
   A Toronto resident wants to know how the Canada Revenue Agency could decide   
   her 85-year-old mother was dead — and cut off her Ontario Trillium benefit —   
   without any proof.   
      
   Lavinia Nassif says she received a letter in the mail Tuesday addressed to the   
   estate of the late Maria Francisco, who lives and breathes in the same North   
   York house she does.   
      
   “These are people who work for the government. How do you put someone in the   
   computer as dead without any death certificate?” asks a baffled Nassif, a   
   former provincial employee who managed the gasoline tax branch at Queen’s Park   
   for 15 years.   
      
   To make matters worse, Nassif learned the closest CRA office has closed its   
   doors to the public and now only responds to enquiries by mail.   
      
   And when she tried the toll-free number for the agency, she was told that if   
   her mother was indeed alive, Nassif would need a T1013 authorization form   
   filled out by Francisco — who is illiterate — before anyone at the agency   
   could talk to her about her    
   mother’s problem.   
      
   If the situation wasn’t cleared up by the end of the month, her mother’s   
   pension cheque would also be terminated.   
      
   Francisco’s problem isn’t new to the CRA.   
      
   The agency’s computer system will declare someone deceased if they   
   accidentally write their date of birth in the field meant for date of death,   
   which appears on the first page of the electronic and print form of an   
   individual’s tax return, says CRA    
   spokesperson Sam Papadopoulos.   
      
   But the mistake can also be the fault of the agency’s data-entry employees,   
   who key in paper returns at 180 strokes a minute.   
      
   “We do take it seriously because it’s disruptive and disturbing to   
   individuals,” said Papadopoulos. Canada Pension and Old Age Security can end   
   up being cut off because the CRA sends out monthly updates to Services Canada,   
   which handles both benefits.   
      
   Nassif said that after getting the letter, she hauled her aged mother, who   
   uses a walker, up to 5010 Yonge St. and stood outside with two other people,   
   reading a sign that said the north Toronto tax office no longer offered   
   over-the-counter service.    
   Enquiries, in the form of a letter, could be put in a mailbox.   
      
   An employee who identified himself as a security guard came out and told   
   Nassif to call a 1-800 number.   
   When she did, two agents separately told her they could only dispense with the   
   T1013 form and talk to her if Francisco could read the income line from her   
   tax assessment, something she was unable to do.   
      
   “She never went to school. She doesn’t read or write,” Nassif says of her   
   mother, who emigrated from Portugal in the 1950s.   
      
   Desperate, Nassif tried the 1-800 number again and was finally helped by an   
   agent “sent from Heaven,” who said he could clear up the mistake within 24   
   hours.   
   “He told me he understood because his mother also couldn’t read or write,”   
   says Nassif. To verify her mother’s identity, the agent asked Francisco   
   questions she could answer, such as how many children she had, and her   
   birthdate.   
      
   The mistake still baffles Nassif, who can’t understand why there isn’t a   
   backup plan to ensure it doesn’t happen. When her father died in December, she   
   had to provide a copy of his death certificate at least 20 times to wrap up   
   his affairs.   
      
   “How is it a government employee enters a code and you have no papers to back   
   up what you did?” she asks. “These are people’s lives you’re talking about.”   
      
   The Yonge St. tax service office closed its doors to the public this month.   
   The federal government began closing all 51 of its tax service offices across   
   the country last year.   
      
   A website for the office says that “payment or enquiry counter services are no   
   longer provided at this location. An external drop box, emptied twice daily,   
   is available.”   
      
   Papadopoulos says the CRA still offers many online and telephone options.   
   “We’re not saying, ‘Don’t talk to us.’ We recognize that seniors can have   
   difficulty, and that’s why the telephone service is there.”   
      
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