From: AlanBaggett@volcanomail.com   
      
   'Where did that money go?' Seniors cut off from benefit blame CRA mixup  : CRA   
   SOTW   
      
   Liberal MP Bill Casey says 'processing problems' to blame after 'raft' of   
   seniors don't get GIS cheques   
      
   By Shaina Luck, CBC News    
      
   Some low-income seniors in Nova Scotia are blaming the Canada Revenue Agency   
   for mishandling their income-tax paperwork after they were abruptly cut off   
   this week from a federal income supplement.   
      
   Their cases are among what one Liberal MP describes as a "raft of unexpected   
   interruptions" for people who thought they would receive the cheques, an issue   
   he too blames on "processing problems" at the federal agency.   
      
   Susan Miller of Chester Basin, N.S., said she and her partner rely on a $600   
   monthly guaranteed income supplement (GIS) payment, but it did not arrive at   
   the usual time in the last week of July.   
      
   "I always check my balance, and when I checked my balance it was out a   
   considerable amount of money and I couldn't figure out obviously at that point   
   what had happened," she said.   
      
   "So then sort of the bottom fell out of my world, where did that money go?   
   Because everything I have is accounted for."   
      
   Nothing to indicate changes   
   The GIS is a monthly payment available to Old Age Security pension recipients   
   with a low income. Recipients apply for it on their income-tax form each year.   
      
   Miller said she filled out her income-tax forms and mailed them in mid-April,   
   using the government-supplied envelope with a pre-printed address of the St.   
   John's processing centre.   
      
   "There was nothing in the tax forms or in the envelope to indicate that there   
   would be any changes," she said.     
      
   Pre-printed envelope   
   However, she said in early July she got the first indication that something   
   was wrong when she did not receive a small GST supplement that she was   
   expecting. Miller called the CRA.    
      
   "I thought it was odd, but at any rate [the agent] explained that I probably   
   hadn't sent the tax forms in to the right place," she said. "Which wouldn't be   
   the case, because it was a pre-printed envelope."   
      
   "He advised me at that point that they had moved … and that all of the mail   
   perhaps hadn't arrived yet."   
      
   Miller said by July 27 her taxes had still not been processed, and she   
   received a letter from the CRA notifying her she was not entitled to the GIS   
   because the CRA had not received "all the income information required."   
      
   When they receive the GIS, Miller and her partner have a combined income of   
   roughly $2,000 per month. Without the GIS, that will now drop to approximately   
   $1,400 for the month, she said.    
      
   "I have a certain amount of money, and I pay my bills, and what's left over is   
   for us to survive on for the month. That $600 means I'm going to have a   
   problem."    
      
   'It was done in plenty of time'   
   Kelly Pouchelu of Northside-East Bay, Cape Breton, said both her 84-year-old   
   father and her aunt received a similar letter from the CRA, telling them they   
   did not qualify because they had failed to submit all the required   
   information.    
      
   Pouchelu said she hand-posted her father's taxes in April — also in a   
   pre-addressed envelope.   
      
   "I was very angry," she said. "It absolutely is not their fault. I know,   
   because I followed through his income tax, and it was done in plenty of time   
   and mailed at a post office. All complete, I had the copy in my hands."   
      
   Pouchelu said her father previously received almost $400 from the GIS, and her   
   aunt received about the same amount.    
      
   "That's hundreds of dollars. They rely on that. There's mortgages and rents,   
   and medications and food, and if they have to wait until this gets sorted out,   
   until the end of month, that's five weeks almost."    
      
   Pouchelu believes her family is not alone, because her aunt encountered many   
   other seniors at the Sydney Service Canada office trying to sort out a similar   
   problem.    
      
   "There was a lineup behind her of seniors, with the same envelope."   
      
   CRA response   
   In a statement to CBC, the CRA said the office in St. John's has become a new   
   "National Verification and Collection Centre." That transition meant centres   
   elsewhere in the country now process tax returns.    
      
   However, the agency said the issue of some seniors not receiving the GIS is   
   not related to the change in duties at the St. John's office.    
      
   "Each year, as a result of changes to individuals' tax situation or   
   information not received by the federal government, some individuals who were   
   entitled to benefits the previous year may not receive them," the statement   
   said.   
      
   The CRA did acknowledge that some of its old envelopes were marked with a St.   
   John's address.    
      
   "The CRA distributes tax forms and envelopes to Canada Post outlets each   
   year," the CRA's statement said. "Those forms and envelopes are prepared well   
   in advance of the tax season.   
      
   "We expected to receive all of these returns at the St. John's office as per   
   previous years and then we rerouted them to be processed in Ontario," the   
   agency said.   
      
   It said post offices in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saint John,   
   Kingston, Ont., St. Catharines, Ont., Peterborough, Ont., Moncton and   
   Bathurst, N.B., would have received the paper envelopes addressed for the   
   former St. John's processing    
   centre.   
      
   The agency could not immediately answer questions about how many people were   
   affected or how long it would take to resolve the issue.    
      
   MPs get involved   
   On Thursday, Susan Miller went to the office of her MP, Bernadette Jordan, to   
   give Jordan the power to ask for information on her case.    
      
   In an email to CBC, Jordan said her office is aware of "a small number of   
   situations where seniors have been notified that Service Canada has yet to   
   receive their income-tax return data resulting in confusion around their   
   eligibility for GIS."   
      
   Jordan said she encouraged seniors to submit the missing information to   
   Service Canada as quickly as possible.    
      
   "We recognize that this presents a serious problem for those affected," Jordan   
   wrote.   
      
   Bill Casey, MP for Cumberland-Colchester, sent out a news release Friday   
   morning blaming "processing problems" for "a raft of unexpected interruptions"   
   to GIS cheques.   
      
   Casey said his staff took "an unusually high number of inquiries from   
   seniors," and urged anyone affected to call Service Canada quickly.    
      
   Susan Miller says she hasn't been given any indication how long it will take   
   to have her income tax processed.    
      
   "So right now, we're stuck. We don't know how long this is going to take. The   
   problem is, the longer it takes, the more complicated things become."    
      
      
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