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III. Supporting Working Canadians and Their Families

1. Overview

The EI program includes four types of special benefits to support workers when they experience an interruption in earnings due to illness, childbirth, parenting, or the provision of care or support to a gravely ill family member. Sickness benefits are payable to claimants who are unable to work due to illness, injury or quarantine, to a maximum of 15 weeks. To allow biological mothers to recuperate after childbirth and care for their newborn infants, the EI program provides maternity benefits to a maximum of 15 weeks. To help biological and adoptive parents balance work and family responsibilities by staying at home with their newly born or adopted child, parental benefits are payable to a maximum of 35 weeks. Six weeks of EI compassionate care benefits are available to workers who need to take a temporary leave from work to provide care or support to a family member who is gravely ill with a significant risk of death.

In 2008/09, there were a total of 514,570 new special benefits claims in Canada, a 3.6% increase from 2007/08. As mentioned in section I, the number of special benefits claims is usually larger when the participation rate is high. Women continued to receive a large proportion of special benefits, accounting for 67.2% of the total in 2008/09.

Total special benefits paid in 2008/09 rose by 6.7% to $3.9 billion, following a 1.0% increase in 2007/08 and an 8.4% decrease in 2006/07.¹² The following sections do not include data for maternity and parental benefits in Quebec, as these benefits are offered under the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan.

2. Maternity Benefits

In 2008/09, women made 172,650 maternity claims, a 2.5% increase from the previous year. Maternity claims increased in all provinces; however, the most notable increase occurred in Prince Edward Island (+13.2%).

In 2008/09, 85.0% of all maternity claims were made by women aged between 25 and 44, up slightly from 84.7% in 2007/08, while 14.8% of maternity claims were made by women under 25. The number of claims made by women aged 25 to 54 (+2.8%) grew slightly faster than the number made by women under 25 (+0.6%).

Although the vast majority of mothers received the full 15 weeks to which they were entitled, average duration of maternity benefits has always been around 14.6 weeks. The average weekly benefit continued to rise in 2008/09, reaching $350, up from $338 in 2007/08.

3. Parental Benefits

In 2008/09, parental claims established by biological parents rose by 2.9% to 191,880. Growth in fathers’ claims (+7.0%) was greater than growth in mothers’ claims (+2.3%) in 2008/09. During the reference period, the average duration of parental claims was 29.8 weeks.¹³

Prince Edward Island had the largest increase in biological parental claims, with 25.3% more claims, consistent with the province’s increase in maternity claims. Similarly, all other provinces recorded increases.

There were 15,970 men who shared the biological parental benefit with their partner in 2008/09, a 3.6% increase over the previous year. This figure represented 61.9% of all biological parental claims established by men. By comparison, 6.4% of women who established biological parental claims shared them with their partner. Men who shared the benefit with their partner took an average of 10.8 weeks of benefits in 2008/09. In total, parents who shared the parental benefit used an average of 32.0 weeks. The average claim duration by parents who chose not to share the benefit was similar, at 32.3 weeks.

The average weekly parental benefit rose by 3.4% to $360 in 2008/09 compared with $348 in the previous year. Men continued to receive higher weekly benefits than women; however, the gap has continued to shrink for the past several years (in 2008/09, men received $401 and women received $353).

In contrast to biological parental claims, the number of adoptive parental claims decreased in 2008/09 to 2,100 (-0.9%). The proportion of adoptive parental claims made by women decreased to 75.2%, from 81.1% the previous year. Among all adoptive parental claims, the average duration was 26.8 weeks in 2008/09.

4. Sickness Benefits

In 2008/09, the number of sickness claims reached 332,220, a 4.1% increase over the previous year. The number of sickness claims increased for both men (+7.4%) and women (+1.8%). As was the case in 2007/08, a large share of this increase can be attributed to individuals aged 55 and older (+7.3%), commensurate with the increase in employment for workers in this age group.

The average weekly benefit for sickness claims increased by 3.8% to $327 in 2008/09. Sickness claimants received benefits for an average of 9.4 weeks, a figure marginally lower than that for 2007/08. Sickness benefit payments increased by 5.6% to $1.01 billion. Of all individuals who claimed sickness benefits, 31.4% used all 15 weeks, which was slightly below the proportion in 2007/08, when it was 31.5%.

5. Compassionate Care Benefits

In 2008/09, there were 5,837 claims established for compassionate care benefits, a 2.3% increase over the previous year. The average weekly benefit increased to $352 (+4.1%). Nearly half (43.3%) of all compassionate care claims were established in Ontario, while Quebec accounted for 18.5%. Total compassionate care benefits amounted to $9.9 million during the reference period, a 3.3% increase from 2007/08.

Although family members have the opportunity to share the six-week benefit, 96.7% chose not to do so in 2008/09. Of all individuals who claimed compassionate care benefits, 57.5% used all of their six weeks of entitlement. On average, claimants used 4.7 weeks of compassionate care benefits. Many compassionate care claimants combined the benefit with other types of EI benefits over the course of their claim. In 2008/09, among claimants who used all six weeks of compassionate care, 46.3% also received another type of benefit. Of those who used another type of benefit after having exhausted their compassionate care benefits, the vast majority used regular benefits (50.1%) and sickness benefits (44.8%).

¹² The 8.4% decrease in total special benefits paid in 2006/07 arises from the implementation of the Quebec Parental Insurance Plan on January 1, 2006. For all other provinces, total special benefits paid increased by 6.0% in 2006/07.

¹³ Data on duration of parental benefits cover claims that began during the first half of 2008/09 to ensure data are based on completed claims.

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Date Modified:: 2011-10-18

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