Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)

The 50% reduction is based on your average weekly employment or net self-employment income from the previous year.

• For periods in 2020, use either 2019 or the previous 12 months
• For periods in 2021, use 2019, 2020, or the previous 12 months

You must have met this criteria for every period you applied for.

Example:

2020, 2019, or the previous 12 months

$26, 000 (employment and self-employment income in 2019, 2020, or the previous 12 months)

÷ 52

= $500 (average weekly income in 2019, 2020, or the previous 12 months)

÷   2

= $250 (50% of the average weekly income in 2019, 2020, or the previous 12 months)

CRB 2-week period

$100 (employment and self-employment income for the CRB period)

÷   2

= $50 (average weekly income for the CRB period)

Your average weekly income for the CRB period must have been less than 50% of your average weekly income in 2019, 2020, or the previous 12 months for periods in 2021.

In this example, since $50 (average weekly income for the CRB period) is less than $250 (50% of the average weekly income in 2019, 2020, or the previous 12 months), the individual would have met this criteria.

For this calculation, self-employment income is your revenue minus any expenses incurred to earn the self-employment revenue.

Employment and/or self-employment income includes, among other things:

• tips you may earn while working
• non-eligible dividends
• honoraria (such as nominal amounts paid to emergency service volunteers)
• royalties (such as those paid to artists)

Do not include the following in the calculation:

• Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Québec Pension Plan (QPP), or other pension income
• Social assistance or family support payments
• Student loans and bursaries
• Old Age Security (OAS) payments
• Maternity and parental benefits from EI or similar QPIP benefits
• Any Canada COVID-19 emergency or recovery benefits

You lived and had a home in Canada, but did not have to be a citizen or a permanent resident.

• Counts as income:
  • All employment or self-employment income, including:
    • tips
    • non-eligible dividends
    • honoraria (nominal amounts paid to volunteers)
    • royalties (payments to artists)
• Does not count as income:
  • disability benefits
  • student loans, bursaries or scholarships
  • social assistance or family support payments
  • Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Québec Pension Plan (QPP), or other pension income
  • Old Age Security (OAS) payments
  • amounts from other COVID-19 benefits:
    • Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB)
    • Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB)
    • Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)
    • Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB)
    • Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB)

If you attended a course, program, or training referred to you by a provincial government or provincial body during the 2-week period, you may have been eligible for the CRB if you also met all the other eligibility criteria.

If you refused reasonable work, you would have automatically lost 5 periods (10 weeks) of the CRB eligibility periods. You would have had to wait 5 periods (10 weeks) before re-applying. If you refused work again, you would have faced the penalty again.

This does not apply to you if you were isolating because:

• you travelled for medical treatment certified by a medical practitioner
• you accompanied a person who was not able to travel without help from an attendant to get medical treatment certified by a medical practitioner
• you were an essential worker who travelled for reasons normally exempt from quarantine (such health care workers or truck drivers who need to cross the border for work) but were required to quarantine upon return to Canada

Filing your 2019 or 2020 tax return is not a CRB requirement if:

• you applied for fewer than 21 periods starting September 27, 2020

and

• you applied for period 21 (July 4 to 17, 2021) or an earlier period

To confirm your number of CRB periods, check in CRA My Account, under "COVID-19 Support Payment Application Details".