TORONTO -- Approximately 190,000 Canadians have had to repay their Canada Emergency Response Benefit cheques to the government as of June 3, according to the latest information from the Canada Revenue Agency.

The federal government established the CERB program back in March to help Canadians who couldn鈥檛 work due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It offers $2,000 per month for up to four months.

The repayments are from people who were not eligible for the benefit. It could have been that they were unknowingly covered under another COVID-19 federal aid program; had been rehired during the time they were still receiving CERB; or had applied out of confusion during the early days of the program.

The CRA also said it received 600 tips of alleged misuse of the CERB benefit as of June 3, a day after the government introduced a snitch line for Canadians to report potentially fraudulent claims.

In speaking on CTV鈥檚 Power Play, Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion Minister Carla Qualtrough estimated that between 1 and 2 per cent of the 8.4 million Canadians who鈥檝e applied for CERB did so fraudulently.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 our best guess right now, partially because these numbers change literally every day, partially because we investigate things that don鈥檛 turn out to be fraudulent or don鈥檛 happen to be incorrect,鈥� she said.

Jeremy Bellefeuille, a spokesperson for the office of National Revenue Minister Diane Lebouthillier, told 麻豆影视 that 鈥渆very tip鈥� of alleged misuse of the program is being investigated.

The Liberal government is pushing a new bill that could, among other things, impose fines and possible jail time to Canadians who fraudulently claimed or tried to claim CERB payments.

Bellefeuille added that the CRA expects CERB repayments and tips of potential fraudsters to increase.