Employment insurance payments, by type of benefits

Regular benefits account for the majority of employment insurance payments

• The money disbursed by the Employment Insurance (EI) program to compensate for job loss, known as regular benefits, far outweighs payouts for all other benefit categories combined. In 2003, regular benefit payments averaged $748 million each month, accounting for 60% of all EI benefits received by Canadians.
• In 2003, just under one-fifth of EI payments were in the form of parental or maternity benefits. In the case of parental benefits, these payments have increased significantly since December 2000, when legislative changes introduced in the federal EI program more than doubled the length of time of eligibility for these benefits. New parents have the option of having the time off taken by one qualifying parent or splitting the time between both (qualifying) parents. In the three years since the new rules took effect, payouts of parental benefits have tripled. Maternity benefit payments have also risen (+12%) since the December 2000 legislation.
• Benefits related to labour market agreement, sickness, support measures, training, skill loans and grants, fishing, self-employment, job creation partnerships, targeted wage subsidies, adoption and work-sharing accounted for 21% of EI payments in 2003.

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