The Canada Revenue Agency has brought a Winnipeg woman back from the dead, so to speak, after the taxman accidentally declared her deceased in December.
"It feels good. I'm excited. I want to get my student loan and everything and just get on with my life," said Alyanna Lapuz, 21, who had tried for weeks to have the agency address the error.
Lapuz had received a letter from the CRA on Jan. 7 addressed to the "Estate of the Late Alyanna Lapuz."
"I was just like, 'What is this?'" Lapuz said. She called CRA and spoke to an agent: "She said I was deceased."
Lapuz believes premature reports of her death may have occurred when she called the agency in December to switch her GST cheques to direct deposit.
"From direct deposit I became deceased," Lapuz said. "I didn't know you could just click a button and make somebody dead."
Lapuz called the agency back repeatedly over the next few weeks, only to learn she was still considered dead.
What was initially an amusing mix-up became a stressful problem requiring multiple calls and visits to the agency to fix the mistake.
"I broke into tears because I was just so frustrated," she said. "I didn't know what to do any more. No one was helping."
Alyanna Lapuz shows CBC's Katie Nicholson the government records showing that she 'died' on Sept. 15 2015. (Dave Gaudet/CBC)
It didn't take long for her newly deceased status to interfere with her life. Lapuz is slated to start a dental hygienist program in Toronto in April, but her student loan application was put on hold because her social insurance number was invalid. The reason? Lapuz was also flagged in that system as deceased.
"If I don't have my student loan, I don't know how I'm paying for school," Lapuz said.
Lapuz is angry the agency had not been able to tell her how it happened or why it was taking so long to fix. She's also worried the situation may affect her taxes and other government documentation.
"If you can click a button and make me dead, you can reverse it as fast as you did it," Lapuz said. "It took you two seconds to kill me, but it takes you what, months to un-kill me?"
Late Thursday afternoon, Lapuz told CBC News a CRA manager in Calgary phoned her to apologize and say everything has been fixed.
She added that the manager informed her that two employees who made errors in her case will be spoken to.
"She says that it was an employee error, so that was nice, and she's saying that everything's OK now," Lapuz said.
Lapuz said she also learned from Service Canada that her social insurance number has had its "deceased" flag removed.
"It feels good. I'm excited. I want to get my student loan and everything and just get on with my life," said Alyanna Lapuz, 21, who had tried for weeks to have the agency address the error.
Lapuz had received a letter from the CRA on Jan. 7 addressed to the "Estate of the Late Alyanna Lapuz."
"I was just like, 'What is this?'" Lapuz said. She called CRA and spoke to an agent: "She said I was deceased."
Lapuz believes premature reports of her death may have occurred when she called the agency in December to switch her GST cheques to direct deposit.
"From direct deposit I became deceased," Lapuz said. "I didn't know you could just click a button and make somebody dead."
Lapuz called the agency back repeatedly over the next few weeks, only to learn she was still considered dead.
What was initially an amusing mix-up became a stressful problem requiring multiple calls and visits to the agency to fix the mistake.
"I broke into tears because I was just so frustrated," she said. "I didn't know what to do any more. No one was helping."
Alyanna Lapuz shows CBC's Katie Nicholson the government records showing that she 'died' on Sept. 15 2015. (Dave Gaudet/CBC)
It didn't take long for her newly deceased status to interfere with her life. Lapuz is slated to start a dental hygienist program in Toronto in April, but her student loan application was put on hold because her social insurance number was invalid. The reason? Lapuz was also flagged in that system as deceased.
"If I don't have my student loan, I don't know how I'm paying for school," Lapuz said.
Lapuz is angry the agency had not been able to tell her how it happened or why it was taking so long to fix. She's also worried the situation may affect her taxes and other government documentation.
"If you can click a button and make me dead, you can reverse it as fast as you did it," Lapuz said. "It took you two seconds to kill me, but it takes you what, months to un-kill me?"
Late Thursday afternoon, Lapuz told CBC News a CRA manager in Calgary phoned her to apologize and say everything has been fixed.
She added that the manager informed her that two employees who made errors in her case will be spoken to.
"She says that it was an employee error, so that was nice, and she's saying that everything's OK now," Lapuz said.
Lapuz said she also learned from Service Canada that her social insurance number has had its "deceased" flag removed.
