January 18, 2026 — Dalena Reporters
Ottawa, ON — An Alberta couple’s fierce dispute with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) over a $33,000 demand to repay COVID-19 benefits has drawn fresh scrutiny to how pandemic relief funds are assessed and recouped particularly for vulnerable taxpayers with limited incomes.
Daria Skibington-Roffel and her husband, Ron Roffel, of Airdrie, Alberta, say they are being forced into financial hardship by the CRA’s insistence that pandemic benefit payments — initially accepted and processed by the agency — must now be returned years after the fact.
Skibington-Roffel, who works part-time due to chronic health issues and serves as her husband’s primary caregiver, said she applied for help during the COVID-19 pandemic when her work hours were reduced. Based on the CRA’s own online eligibility tool and questionnaire at the time, she believed she qualified for a range of supports — including the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Recovery Benefit.
“We needed the money,” Skibington-Roffel said. “For the first time ever, we were actually able to pay all the bills every month instead of sacrificing one for another.”
However, in 2021 she discovered her expected tax refund had not been issued. Upon contacting the CRA, she was informed she did not qualify for CERB because her income was allegedly above the threshold and that she owed roughly $14,000. Two years of appeals later, the agency informed her that she was also ineligible for additional pandemic supports and that her total repayment obligation had ballooned to nearly $50,000 before reductions.
To date, the CRA has withheld more than $10,000 by offsetting years of tax refunds and caregiver rebates, leaving the couple on the hook for about $33,000.
The Roffels say the debt has forced them to take out loans just to pay routine bills and property taxes, and they claim they nearly lost their home twice due to the financial strain. Ron Roffel criticized the CRA’s use of low-income thresholds that he says disqualified his wife despite her modest earnings.
“This has put us deeper into the poor house,” he said, calling the eligibility criteria “unrealistic.”
The CRA has said it is actively working to recover more than $10 billion in pandemic benefits, citing both overpayments and instances where individuals were ultimately determined ineligible. The agency stresses it will pursue repayment — including through withholding refunds, garnishing wages or other lawful means — when taxpayers are assessed as having the ability to pay and no acceptable arrangement is in place.
A spokesperson for the CRA, Nina Ioussoupova, stated that the agency must act “firmly and responsibly” to recover outstanding debts.
As of Nov. 30, 2025, CRA data indicates it disbursed $83.5 billion in COVID-19 benefits to Canadians, with $45.3 billion relating to CERB. Nearly 1.4 million people have repaid approximately $3.3 billion in related debts, according to agency figures.
The Roffels maintain that they were entitled to the benefits they received, based on the CRA’s own application processes at the time, and are calling on the agency to halt collection efforts and return withheld funds. “We could live like human beings for a couple of years,” Skibington-Roffel said, “and now we’re being forced to live in worse conditions just because we took a benefit that we were eligible for.”
At press time, the CRA had not provided further public comment on the couple’s case or on broader policy reforms regarding benefit repayment disputes.