EI WAITING PERIOD REDUCED

The federal government has announced that it will reduce the waiting period for employment insurance benefits. The current employment insurance payment period is 17 weeks, two of these weeks are a waiting period where no benefits are paid and benefits are paid for 15 weeks.  

Effective January 1st, 2017, the waiting period will be only one week, meaning the entire benefit period will be reduced from 17 weeks to 16 weeks. If you are a plan sponsor, you may want to note how the change will affect you. This change will affect Short Term Disability (STD) plans qualified under EI Supplementary Unemployed Benefit Plans (SUB) and the EI Premium Reduction Program (PRP). Plan sponsors will have four years to make any necessary adjustments so that existing plans comply.  Plan sponsors will receive a letter from the Government of Canada in January 2017, explaining the transitional measures.