Changes will give new parents more choice and flexibility in their Employment Insurance maternity and parental benefits to balance their unique family and work responsibilities.

Effective December third, 2017, the choice is yours. Workers can choose to claim their Employment Insurance maternity benefits up to 12 weeks before their due date. This added flexibility allows them to start receiving their benefits earlier.

The Government of Canada is also making parental benefits more flexible. Parents can now choose to receive benefits over a longer period of time, up to 18 months, at a lower rate.

Or they can choose to still claim their benefits, up to 12 months.
Short or long duration, parents can share these benefits as best suits their needs. The choice is up to each family. Here’s an example.

Jessica and Mark work fulltime and each earns $60,000. They choose the long duration option of 61 weeks of parental benefits.
Jessica plans to take 40 weeks and Mark plans to take 21 weeks of parental benefits.

She is first eligible for 15 weeks of EI maternity benefits of $543 per week. Then her extended parental benefit begins at $326 per week for 40 weeks.

In total, she receives $21,185 in maternity and extended parental benefits.

Since Mark earns the same salary as Jessica, he also receives $326 per week for 21 weeks, for a total of $6,846.

To find out how changes to the maternity and parental benefits may apply to you, visit the EI improvements page on https://www.Canada.ca