Backgrounder: How Working Affects Your Claim

How Working Affects Your Claim

If you work or receive earnings while receiving EI benefits and have served the waiting period, you can keep 50 cents of your EI benefits for every dollar you earn, up to 90 percent of the weekly insurable earnings used to calculate your EI benefit rate. The 90 percent amount is called the earnings threshold. Any money earned or received above this threshold is deducted dollar-for-dollar from your EI benefits.

If you work a full work week, you are considered to be employed and you will not receive any EI benefits for that week, regardless of the amount you earn. However, this will not reduce the total number of weeks payable on your claim.

Example

John was laid off when the grocery store where he worked shut down. His weekly earnings at the grocery store were $500, so his weekly EI benefit rate is $275 (55 percent of $500). He has found a part-time job at a restaurant, where he works three days a week and earns $300 per week.

As a result, his $275 in EI benefits are reduced by $150 or 50 cents for every dollar he earns at the restaurant ($300÷2=$150); bringing his total EI benefit to $125 ($275–$150=$125).

In the end, John takes home $125 per week in EI benefits plus his part-time wages of $300, for a total of $425.

Temporary alternate earnings rule

In addition, temporary provisions have been introduced to grandfather claimants who have chosen, under the just concluded pilot project, to revert to rules of a previous pilot project, which allowed them to keep the greater of $75 or 40 percent of their weekly benefit rate without any deduction from EI benefits. Any amount earned above the $75 or 40 percent will be deducted dollar-for-dollar from benefits.These claimants will continue to have the option to elect to the alternate earnings rule for up to three years, until August 14, 2021.