AUTHORITY
Income and Employment Support Act (IESA), section 35

INTENT
To establish delegated authority levels for making decisions about overpayment.

POLICY
An overpayment can be the result of various circumstances that may be attributed to the program, the client, or both. The delegated authority makes two concurrent decisions:

• assessing an overpayment, and
• determining the requirement to repay an assessed overpayment.
  

 

These decisions are subject to review by an Appeal Panel.

Before an overpayment is assessed, the delegated authority is responsible for confirming that the program’s policies have been applied accurately and that the calculation is correct. After an overpayment is assessed, the requirement to repay or exempt the requirement to repay an assessed overpayment can be considered by the delegated authority as long as there is no suspected fraud or wilful misrepresentation based on the Criteria for Exempting the Requirement to Repay an Assessed Overpayment as outlined in the Overpayment Process.

If any level of delegated authority is uncertain of what decision to make, they are encouraged to escalate the decisions to the next level of authority.

Levels of Delegated Authority

Level One (Worker)
Workers are authorized to assess and require repayment of overpayments that span up to and including two periods of assistance (POA), regardless of the value. The worker is not authorized to exempt the requirement to repay any portion of an assessed overpayment.

Level Two (Supervisor)
In addition to the authority of Level One, supervisors are authorized to assess and require repayment of overpayments that span up to and including six POA, regardless of the value. In addition, supervisors are authorized to exempt the requirement to repay overpayments that span up to and including six POA if the overpayment is due to pure administrative error as described in the Criteria for Exempting the Requirement to Repay an Assessed Overpayment policy.

Level Three (Manager) 
In addition to the authority of Level Two, managers are authorized to assess and require repayment of overpayments that span up to and including twelve POA, regardless of the value. In addition, managers are authorized to exempt the requirement to repay overpayments that span up to and including twelve POA if the overpayment is due to pure administrative error or other appropriate circumstances as described in the Criteria for Exempting the Requirement to Repay an Assessed Overpayment policy.

Level Four (Statutory Director) 
In addition to the authority of Level Three, the statutory director is authorized to assess and require repayment of overpayments that span more than twelve POA, regardless of the value. In addition, the statutory director is authorized to exempt the requirement to repay any overpayments due to pure administrative error or other appropriate circumstances as described in the Criteria for Exempting the Requirement to Repay an Assessed Overpayment policy.

The following chart summarizes the delegated authority levels for overpayment decisions.