Employment Insurance temporary measures – Questions and answers

For new claims established as of September 26, 2021, the program will revert to using the actual regional unemployment rates as produced by Statistics Canada, as opposed to the minimum rate of 13.1% that has been used since September 2020 as part of Canada’s COVID-19 Economic Response Plan.

This means that if you establish a new EI claim on or after September 26, 2021, the actual unemployment rate for your economic region will be used to calculate your maximum benefit duration. Claims that are established before September 26, 2021 will not be impacted by this change.

Benefit duration will be based on the combination of your hours worked in the qualifying period as well as the regional unemployment rate. As of September 26, 2021, all eligible claimants will be able to receive a minimum of 14 weeks of benefits up to a maximum of 45 weeks.

For claims established on or after November 21, 2021, following the expiry of the $300 minimum benefit rate on November 20, 2021, the benefit rate will be calculated based on the customary variable best weeks method. The number of best weeks used will range from 14 to 22, depending on the unemployment rate in your EI economic region.

In addition, a uniform entrance requirement for EI regular benefits at 420 hours of insurable employment as of September 26, 2021 for a 1 year period provides a minimum entitlement of 14 weeks of regular benefits, up to a minimum entitlement of 26 weeks in EI economic regions with higher unemployment rates.

For EI claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022, you will need 420 hours of insurable employment to qualify for regular benefits. This is the entrance requirement for all regular benefit claims within this period, regardless of where you live in Canada. The regular entrance requirement normally ranges from 420 to 700 hours depending on the regional unemployment rate where you live.

Other standard EI eligibility criteria continue to apply, meaning you must also:

• have been employed in insurable employment
• have lost your job through no fault of your own
• have been without work and without pay for at least seven consecutive days in the last 52 weeks
• be ready, willing and capable of working each day, and
• be actively looking for work (you must keep a written record of employers you contact, including when you contacted them)

For new EI claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022, you will need 420 hours of insurable employment to qualify for all types of special benefits.

If you are a self-employed fisher establishing an EI claim between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022, you will need $2,500 in fishing earnings to qualify for regular fishing or special benefits.

Self-employed workers who have opted in can access EI special benefits using an earnings threshold of $5,289 for claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022.

For new EI claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022, if you apply for EI regular benefits and your most recent job separation was through no fault of your own, all your insurable hours and earnings in the qualifying period will count.

Normally, hours and earnings from any employment that ended in an invalid reason for separation would not count for the purposes of determining eligibility or the benefit rate for EI benefits.

If you have exhausted your EI benefits and are no longer eligible for EI, you may be eligible for the CRB if you meet the eligibility criteria.  (See Who can apply: Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB)).  However, if you have worked while on your EI claim, you may be able to establish a new EI claim.  To determine your EI eligibility, you should make an EI claim before applying for the CRB (See EI regular benefits: Apply).

The Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) ended on October 23, 2021. If you are eligible, you can apply for open periods, up to 60 days after each period has ended. The last period for the CRB is period 28 (October 10 to 23, 2021) which will be open for application until December 22, 2021.

For example:

Ahmed is eligible for EI and lost his job in September 2020. He began claiming EI regular benefits on September 27, 2020 and claimed the full 50 weeks of entitlement (receiving the minimum benefit rate of $500 per week), ending his EI claim on September 11, 2021. Still unable to find employment, Ahmed intends to apply for the additional 4 weeks of CRB (at $300 a week) which would allow him to receive benefits until October 9, 2021.

As a temporary measure, monies paid to you by your employer by reason of separation (including severance pay and vacation pay when paid by reason of separation) when you are laid off will not affect the payment of your EI benefits. This is in effect until September 24, 2022.

You are eligible for an EI payment at the end of the 2-week period when you are out of work.

You'll receive your first payment about 28 days after you apply if you're eligible and have submitted all required information. If you're not eligible, we'll notify you of the decision made about your application.

To receive a payment, EI clients need to complete their bi-weekly reports online or through the telephone reporting system. Clients who do not complete their reports every 2 weeks will not be paid their benefits, even if they are eligible

When applying for EI benefits, be sure to sign up for direct deposit to get payments as quickly as possible. When using direct deposit, EI payments are deposited automatically into an applicant’s bank account 2 business days after Service Canada processes their EI report.

No, not for EI claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022. During this period, workers will be allowed to collect monies paid to them by their employers by reason of separation (including severance pay and vacation pay when paid by reason of separation) at the same time as they collect their EI benefit payments.

Your EI entitlement will depend on the number of insurable hours in your qualifying period and your region of residence. The maximum number of weeks ranges from 14 to 45.

You can log into your My Service Canada Account to obtain details of your EI benefits claim, including how much you will receive every week as well as the number of weeks of benefits available to you. Additional information on how much you could receive on EI is also available.

The Government of Canada has put in place significant and robust measures to protect the information Canadians entrusted to us. Like every other government and private sector organization in the world, we face ongoing and persistent cyber threats.

As such, the government has systems and tools in place to monitor, detect and investigate potential threats, and to neutralize threats when they occur.

A client’s password remains the most prevalent authentication mechanism. By controlling access, passwords help ensure that your account and information is protected. Weak and compromised passwords are a leading cause of breaches. Clients are encouraged to review the best practices that enable strong passwords.

Additionally, ESDC’s webpages have valuable resources to support clients who may have concerns related to:

• Protect yourself against fraud
• Fraud Awareness and Reporting
• Online fraud reporting tool
• Employment Insurance and fraud

Yes.

You must complete and submit bi-weekly reports online or by phone to show your eligibility and to receive the benefits you are eligible for. Failure to do so can mean a loss of benefits.

As part of the bi-weekly reporting, you will be expected to include information on any earnings you received in that period, including the name and address of your employer, as well as confirming that you were available and seeking work (for periods when not working).

The waiting period was waived for all EI claims established between January 31, 2021 and September 25, 2021. Claims established on or after September 26, 2021 will be required to serve the standard 1-week waiting period required under EI program rules.

If you have weeks remaining on an EI claim, Service Canada will automatically reactivate (renew) that claim at the existing benefit rate.

You may also request that Service Canada end your existing claim and open a new EI claim, provided you meet the eligibility criteria.

If you choose to end your existing claim, any remaining weeks payable on that existing claim will be lost and your decision is irreversible and not subject to reconsideration.

As a general rule, to be entitled to EI regular benefits, you must show that you are unemployed through no fault of your own, able and willing to work and actively looking for suitable employment. Evidence of job search could include, for example, records of applications for work, job interviews, job search activity on the national Job Bank, etc.

Yes.

Employers that wish to do so may submit a SUB plan to Service Canada. By registering a plan, employers can make payments to employees who are receiving EI regular or sickness benefits. Payments from SUB plans that are registered with Service Canada are not considered as earnings for the purposes of Employment Insurance and are not deducted from EI benefits.

No.

You don’t need to take your EI benefits before you apply for the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB) or the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB). These benefits will continue to be available to eligible individuals until November 20, 2021. The CRSB is available for up to 4 weeks and CRCB is available for up to 42 weeks.

However, you cannot get EI and the Recovery Benefits or any other paid leave at the same time.

On October 21, 2021, the Government of Canada announced its intention to extend the CRSB and CRCB until May 7, 2022, and increase the maximum duration of benefits by 2 weeks each. This would extend the CRSB from 4 weeks to 6 weeks and CRCB from 42 to 44 weeks until May 7, 2022.

Workers applying for EI sickness benefits on or after September 26, 2021 must be able to prove with a medical certificate that they are sick and unable to work.

There will still need to be 7 consecutive calendar days with no work and no insurable earnings from an employer (interruption of earnings) to qualify for EI regular benefits. For EI special benefits, regular weekly earnings from work must have been decreased by more than 40% for at least 1 week.

The existing rules requiring employers to prepare a Record of Employment (ROE) indicating the Reason for Separation (RFS) remain in place. In particular:

• employers who use the paper record of employment (ROE) must have it issued within 5 days of an employee’s interruption of earnings, and
• employers who issue electronic ROEs must to do so within 5 days after the end of the pay period containing the employee's interruption of earnings

The majority of ROEs are received in electronic format.

Information specifically on Work-Sharing benefits is available.

No.

As a general rule, to be entitled to EI regular benefits, you must show that you are unemployed, able and willing to work and actively looking for suitable employment, unless you were participating in training opportunities you were referred to by a province or territory. This is not changing.

As is always the case, if you decide on your own to take training, it must be declared and you must prove that you are still able and willing to work and are continuing to look for a job to continue receiving EI benefits.

You must be ready to make arrangements to work if you receive a job offer, and to change or cancel training plans if necessary.

If you take training on your own and cannot show that you were available for work while taking that training, you may have to pay back EI benefits.

Self-employed workers who have opted in can access EI special benefits using an earnings threshold of $5,289 for claims established between September 26, 2021 and September 24, 2022.