InfoCapsule 15: Error codes and refusal reasons

From: Employment and Social Development Canada

Disclaimer: RESP promoters

The information contained on this page is technical in nature. It is intended for Registered Education Savings Plan (RESP) and Canada Education Savings Program promoters. For general information, visit the RESP page.

Alternate format

A PDF version of the InfoCapsules for RESP providers is available on the index page.

List of acronyms

BCTESG: British Columbia Training and Education Savings Grant
CESG: Canada Education Savings Grant
CESP: Canada Education Savings Program
CLB: Canada Learning Bond
ESDC: Employment and Social Development Canada
RESP: Registered Education Savings Plan
RT: Record type
SIN: Social Insurance Number

Preface

Promoters send monthly transactions to Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). The Canada Education Savings Program (CESP) system will either:

process, or
reject each transaction based on format and validation rules

Rejected transaction

ESDC will advise the promoter through either the error report record type (RT) (RT 800), or the severe error report (RT 850). The CESP system will generate a 4-digit error code/type.

**Table 1: Most common error codes with description and resolution**
Error code	Description	Resolution*
7001	Invalid value	Submit a new or corrected beneficiary information transaction (200‑03) the following month. The financial transactions can be submitted in the same month for processing.
7006	Invalid Social Insurance Number (SIN)	Submit a new or corrected beneficiary information transaction (200-03) the following month. The financial transactions can be submitted in the same month for processing. The promoter should contact the subscriber or custodial parent to verify if the beneficiary's SIN information has changed for any reason since initially provided. The promoter must submit a new 200-03 transaction with the new SIN information for each contract and specimen plan held for that beneficiary.
7031	Beneficiary not associated with the specimen plan	Submit a new or corrected beneficiary information transaction (200‑03) the following month. Check the error report sent by the CESP system to verify the specimen plan ID submitted in the 200‑03 transaction. Ensure that this specimen plan ID corresponds with the specimen plan ID submitted in the RT 400.

*For more information about error codes, refer to the Appendix E. Registered Education Savings Plan provider user guide - Understanding error codes.

Processed transaction

ESDC will advise the promoter through one or more of the following transaction processing reports:

RT 900 for financial transactions and requests for federal incentives, and
RT 911 for the provincial incentive administered by ESDC

Even if a transaction goes through successfully, the full or partial payment of incentives might still be denied. In such cases, a refusal reason consisting of a single-digit code would be received.

**Table 2: Most common refusal reasons with description and resolution**
Refusal reason	Description	Resolution*
3	Age of beneficiary	For the Canada Education Savings Grant (CESG), no action required. The grant is paid until the end of the calendar year in which the beneficiary turns 17 years old. For the Canada Learning Bond (CLB), contact the subscriber to verify the beneficiary's birth date. For the British Columbia Training and Education Savings Grant (BCTESG), verify the transaction date of the request and the age of the beneficiary.
J	Contract not individual/sibling only	Submit a contract information transaction (100‑01) with the individual/sibling only flag set to "yes". Reverse and resubmit the previously refused contribution transaction to receive the Additional CESG.

*For more information about refusal reasons, refer to Appendix F - Understanding refusal reasons.

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Date modified:: 2023-12-20

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