Employment Insurance Benefit Entitlement (8:VII): Difference between revisions

A claimant will be disentitled if the Commission has evidence (often supplied inadvertently by the claimant) to show that the claimant was not capable and available for work during a given period. For example, if a claimant volunteers the fact that he or she is only applying for jobs paying $20 per hour or more, the Commission could disentitle the claimant if there are few if any such jobs for which the claimant would be suitable. For an example of how unforeseen  events can affect availability, see ''Canada (Attorney General) v Leblanc'', 2010 FCA60. In this case, a desire to work was insufficient to establish  availability because the claimant lacked proper clothing and a means to get to work as the result of a house fire.  

A claimant cannot collect benefits for times he or she is on vacation, as he or she must be ready for work to collect benefits. However, he or she can collect up to the day he or she leaves, and from the day he or she returns, if he or she becomes immediately available again. To avoid potentially onerous penalties, vacations – including short ones – '''must''' be properly recorded and reported.  

A claimant may receive up to 15 weeks of sickness benefits where he or she can prove that he or she was “incapable of work by reason of prescribed illness, injury or quarantine on that day, and that they would otherwise be available for work” (s 12(3)(c)). In theory, if the claimant is already receiving regular  benefits from EI and is ill for even one day, that day must be recorded as a day on which he or she is not capable of or available for work, if that is indeed the case.  

A claimant who worked part-time may be able to claim an earnings exemption. If the claimant receives any benefits at all, the week counts toward the maximum number of weeks that can be paid under that claim. Thus, it may be in a claimant’s interest not to claim benefits for a week in which only a small amount would be paid.