The Canada Child Benefit program would cost $1.1 billion more over the 2021-2024 fiscal years if pandemic supports had not been paid out to families and the employment insurance program had not been interrupted by COVID-19.

A report released Wednesday by the parliamentary budget office focuses on the effect that the Canada Emergency Response Benefit and the Canada Recovery Benefits had on the child benefit payments to beneficiaries.

It notes that families who saw a reduction in child benefit payments were not made worse off by receiving pandemic benefits.

The CERB gave $74.1 billion in financial support to 8.9 million applicants who lost employment or income between March and October 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Earlier on during the pandemic, child benefit recipients were surprised to see their payment size shrink after receiving pandemic supports.

This was because those emergency benefits were counted as income for the purposes of calculating benefit amounts. As incomes rose, benefit values dropped.

(The Canadian Press)