DCHP-2

clawback DCHP-2 (July 2016)

• n. — Finance, Administration

  money recovered after it was originally granted or given.

  As Chart 1 shows, the term is much more widespread in the US. There is, contrary to the claims of the dictionaries listed below, no evidence for the labelling of this term as Canadian.
  See also COD-2, s.v. "clawback", which is marked "Cdn & Brit.", ITP Nelson, s.v. "claw back", which is marked "Canadian", and OED-3, s.v. "claw" (v. 2a).

  • 1985  A clawback is a system in which some forms of income would be counted more than once for income tax purposes. The introduction of a 100 per cent clawback on family allowance and a 50 per cent clawback on UI benefits would effectively make the tax system more progressive with regard to these payments, and tax back benefits from those with higher incomes. [...] A cunning redesign could bring higher revenue, thus contributing to deficit reduction without the formal process of acknowledging a general tax increase. 
  • 1989  It is the so-called "clawback" by which the government plans to retrieve more than $600 million annually from recipients of old age security and family allowance payments. 
  • 1994  A higher net income may deny you the right to claim tax credits for children or the goods-and-services tax. This also can trigger a clawback of old-age security benefits, and even reduce your ability to claim medical expenses. 
  • 2004  Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have been trying to reach a final deal with the federal government to end the equalization clawback that sends the majority of their offshore revenues into federal coffers. 
  • 2014  The hearing in February or March will be the union's last chance to prevent a clawback of thousands of dollars apiece for many of the 2,200 union members who collected EI after they lost their jobs.