As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, provinces and territories are announcing further restrictions to slow the spread of the virus.
In response to the increase in people needing support, the Minister of Employment, Workforce Development and Disability Inclusion, Carla Qualtrough,ÌýtodayÌýannounced Employment Insurance regulations will be amended to temporarily waive the waiting period for EI claimants who establish a new claim between Jan. 31, 2021 and Sept. 25, 2021. This includes claimants of regular, fishing and special benefits.
This temporary change will allow people who are applying for benefits to be paid for their first week of unemployment. It will also help ease their heightened financial stress at a time of great uncertainty.
This temporary measure will not change the total weeks of EI benefits for which workers are entitled to, nor the service standard for payment. Claims will be automatically processed with this new waiver, meaning workers are not required to take additional steps to receive the support they need.
This temporary measure means that people who open a new EI claim after Jan. 31, 2021 and return to work before exhausting all of their weeks of entitlement will benefit from an additional week of income support, due to the removal of the waiting period.
To encourage compliance with public health measures, the Government waived the waiting period for EI sickness claims established on or after September 27, 2020 for a period of one year. The waiting period was also waived for all EI claims established between September 27, 2020 and October 25, 2020 in order to avoid creating a week for which claimants may not receive payment as many workers transitioned from the Canada Emergency Response Benefit to the simplified EI program.
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