The Federal Government has announced that they’re permanently extending the number of weeks available under EI sickness benefits from 15 to 26 weeks. These extra weeks will be available for new EI claims established on or after December 18, 2022.
Client impact as of December 18, 2022
- Clients with Short-Term Disability (STD) plans that integrate with the EI sickness benefit may wish to align their maximum benefit period to 26/27 weeks (depending on their STD elimination period).
- Clients without STD plans whose plan members claim EI benefits before Long-Term Disability (LTD) may wish to align their LTD elimination period to 27 weeks (aligns with the 1-week EI wait period plus 26 weeks of payments).
- There will be no immediate impact to your Clients who qualify for the Premium Reduction Program (PRP).
- The requirements to qualify for a premium reduction under this program will remain unchanged for the time being.
If your Clients don’t make these changes, there’s a chance their plan members will receive EI and disability benefits at the same time. It’s the plan member’s responsibility to advise Service Canada if they are in receipt of disability benefits. When this change is in effect, your Clients may want to advise plan members who receive EI sickness benefits to contact Service Canada to discuss potential impacts on their benefits.
Because this change isn’t mandatory, there’s no need to make it by a specific date. Clients will need time to consider what’s right for their benefits program. This change can be made at any time.
We’ll share this Focus Update with plan sponsors on December 8, 2022. We’ll advise Clients to contact their advisor or Sun Life Group Benefits Representative to discuss options and pricing. We’ll assess rate changes to revised STD and LTD plans on a plan-by-plan basis.
Questions? We’re here to help.
Please contact your Sun Life Group Benefits representative.
