Ministère de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale

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Amounts owed to the Québec Parental Insurance Plan


Review

The claim notice specifies that claims can be contested. You have 90 days following receipt of the notice to submit an application for review. The required form is available on the Québec Parental Insurance PlanLien vers un site externe. web site.

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Tribunal administratif du Québec (TAQ)

If you disagree with the decision made following the review, you may file an appeal with the Tribunal administratif du Québec (TAQ)Link to external site.within 60 days of receiving the notice of decision. The TAQ decision is final.

However, immediately after the time period allowed to submit an application for review or to appeal the review with the Tribunal administratif du Québec expires, you are obligated to repay the amounts claimed, in accordance with the terms of repayment.

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Repayment

You can reimburse the amount claimed as soon as you receive the claim notice.

When the deadline to contest a claim or claims has expired, the ministère du Travail, de l'Emploi et de la Solidarité sociale issues a claim certificate.

The certificate also allows the Ministère to use the means provided for in the Regulation to recover the amounts claimed.

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Terms of repayment

If you are receiving Québec Parental Insurance Plan benefits

After issuing a claim certificate, the Department will withhold an amount from your benefits (20% of the net benefit payable) to repay your debt. However, if the withholding results from a case involving misrepresentation, it will correspond to 50% of the net benefit payable.

If you are no longer receiving Québec Parental Insurance Plan benefits

Benefits unduly received must be repaid in full, either in a single lump sum or by instalments (once a month, twice a month, every two weeks or once a week), in accordance with a repayment agreement reached with the Ministère. Contact a recovery officer to determine the terms of repayment. 

Under certain conditions, the Ministère can be required to protect their claim by taking out a legal hypotec (legal mortgage). The establishment of a legal mortgage takes place separately from the negotiating of a repayment agreement.

Every three months, the Ministère will send you an account balance to allow you to know the change in the amount to be repaid.

Please keep in mind that concluding and honouring an agreement is always preferable to legal proceedings.

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Other means of recovering debts

The Ministère may resort to other means to recover amounts owed to it.

Withholding of amounts by Revenu Québec

Whether or not you are receiving benefits from the Québec Parental Insurance Plan, the following amounts that could be owed to you by Revenu Québec may be withheld to repay the sums you owe to the Ministère:

  • Amounts owed to you as income tax refunds can be entirely withheld, or up to the balance of your debt.
  • Amounts owed to you as solidarity tax credit payments are withheld entirely or partially (50%), depending on your annual household income.

Legal proceedings

The Ministère can resort to the following legal recourses:

  • Legal hypotec (legal mortgage)
  • Garnishment of income
  • Seizure of bank accounts and financial investments
  • Seizure of property and real estate

To exercise a legal recourse, a certificate is filed with the court registry and costs are charged to the debtor’s account. Also, a file is opened at the courthouse and this information then becomes public.

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Order of priority for repayment

The Ministère establishes an order for allocating payments that takes into account the rights of the debtor as provided under the Québec Civil Code.

Allocation of repayments is done in a specified order and to the advantage of the debtor.

Unless the debtor indicates a different method in writing, repayments are allocated as follows:

  • for various administrative and legal costs
  • for the claim or claims, in the order you have indicated
  • for claims involving misrepresentation
  • for claims other than for misrepresentation

When there are several claims of the same nature, older debts are given priority.

Please note that payments may not be allocated to the capital before interest owed has been paid. Also, the choice as to the order of allocation does not apply to legal and administrative charges.

Last update: 2023-06-28 Top of Page

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