There have been reports recently of some seniors not receiving all of their government issued tax slips. These are for things like OAS, CPP, and for that one-time $500 benefit payment that was received in 2021 due to COVID-19. 

I can tell you this: the news outlets are completely blowing this out of proportion. They are saying people aren't going to be able to file their tax returns by May 2nd and so on.

This is simply not true. 

First of all, they are going to be here by April, if you don't have them already. If not, you still have many options to get those slips. If you have a CRA My Account, you can go in and access your slips online. For example: my in-laws. They had not received their slips either, so I went online and pulled them off their CRA My Account and said, "Are these all the slips that you're expecting?" They were, so we simply moved ahead with their tax return. The only people I don't see this method working for are people that do not have computers. If you don't have a computer, you probably know somebody who does. 

Yes - the slips should have come in the mail. Yes - there was a government clerical error, but that's not going to prevent you from doing your taxes. Most people, even if you do them by paper, take a month or two to prepare for the big day. Then, they sit down and do their taxes, usually all in one day.

I assume that's what a lot of these people are going to do, but you're always going to have those people who blow it out of proportion. You don't need the formal copy of the slips- you can access them online. They look a little bit different, but they have all the same information.

May 2nd is a long ways away. You've got lots of time to do your taxes. Don't worry. Don't stress. It’ll be alright.