Canada Employment Insurance 5-Week Extension Guidelines

Five more weeks?

A Canadian can request a five-week extension for unemployment benefits. Canada limits the total weeks in the payment period to 104.

Rules

The Canadian must not be eligible for unemployment benefits for five weeks in the payment period. Five reasons make an employee ineligible.

Unemployment Week

Each week the employee does not work a full working week counts as a week of unemployment.

Incarceration

An employee can receive an extension for time spent in a jail, a penitentiary or an institution used to incarcerate criminals.

Workers' Compensation

Add weeks you received payments for workers' compensation or severance pay from your employer. The payments keep you ineligible for unemployment benefits during these weeks.

Child Care

Extend the period for the weeks you cared for a newborn child or adopted child in a hospital, beginning within the first 52 weeks after birth or adoption. Also add weeks the mother ceased work to prevent danger to the mother, her unborn child or a child she breastfeeds and received provincial payments.

References

• Service Canada: Benefits Period in Employment Insurance Act
• Service Canada: Regulation on Week of Benefits
• Service Canada: How Long Can Regular Benefits Be Paid? at Service Canada