- Jurisdiction, Tribunal (overpayment)
- Overpayment
The worker suffered a back injury in November 1995. He returned to work at no wage loss but suffered a recurrence in 1999. In August 1999, the Board granted the worker a full FEL award. In June 2011, the worker was granted CPP disability benefits. The Board offset the CPP benefits from the FEL award effective September 2011, and created a recoverable overpayment of $1,800 for the period from June to September. The worker appealed a decision of the Appeals Resolution Officer to allow recovery of the debt.
The Vice-Chair agreed with prior Tribunal decisions that the Tribunal retains jurisdiction to hear appeals regarding Board decisions about overpayments when the overpayment arose as a result of an accident that occurred prior to January 1, 1998, even if the overpayment was created in respect of benefits paid after January 1, 1998.The worker was granted the CPP disability benefits in June 2011. The Board did not receive written notice of those benefits until the end of July 2011. It then adjusted the worker's benefits on an ongoing basis effective September 2011. The delay by the Board in implementing the CPP decision was not excessive and did not constitute an administrative error. The Vice-Chair also noted that the Board had advised the worker earlier that his FEL benefits would be adjusted to reflect receipt of CPP disability benefits. The Vice-Chair also noted current Board policy stating that the Board offsets CPP disability benefits from the date the worker is notified of entitlement to the CPP disability benefits.The Board correctly recovered the overpayment. The appeal was dismissed.