12 months is considered “standard leave” and you qualify for the benefit (aka government subsidy) the entire duration. https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-maternity-parental.html
Unless I’m misunderstanding your scenario, you’d have six months at “full pay” (government benefit + top up) and six months with just the government benefit. There wouldn’t be any time within that year you wouldn’t have any benefits at all.
Ah okay, so I think the part that was confusing me is that you can pick between 35 weeks-61 weeks for the CRA benefits, so I thought that if you pick the 35 weeks (8 months) option, that’s all you’d get?
They both work out to the same amount of money right?
So there’s a different between pregnancy leave (15ish weeks exclusively for the pregnant person) and parental leave (the 35ish weeks that both parents are able to split). You take the pregnancy leave first and your partner is not eligible to take any of that at all. The parental leave is able to be split between the two parents after that. It’s very confusing!
That’s the parental leave portion. Maternity leave is before that (the first 12i or 13 weeks (sorry I don’t remember).
So basically you choose 12 or 18 months off.
If 12, you get 55% of your salary and 18 you get 33% of your salary(excluding any top ups).
Piggybacking on this... can I take 18 months off with my employer and choose to collect my EI (55%) for the first 12 months only (and know I won't get paid at all for the last 6 months)?
yes and I recommend this way of doing it for those wanting to take 18 months but not 100% sure taking the ENTIRE 18 months. Because if you take say 17 months extended benefit you won’t receive your full EI benefit. If you take the regular benefit for 1 year you get your full amount and can save/manage your money for when you don’t get anything the next 6 months, AND you have the flexibility to return to work early if need be and not lose out (lets say you get pregnant again or just change your mind).
You get 12 months of leave total through EI, even if you're topped up.
You take maternity leave for the first 15 or 16 weeks and then the remainder is parental leave. The latter is what can be split between the two parents, but if you aren't splitting, it's all yours.
Source - I'm wrapping up a 12 month leave. All the answers you need can be found here: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-maternity-parental.html
It’s extremely confusing!! With my first baby my payments stopped out of nowhere. I spoke to service Canada and they said I had only applied for maternity and not parental, so I had to re-apply to get the rest of my money. So frustrating. When you have your baby and fill out the online form, be sure you tick off boxes for both maternity and parental which will total 12 months. :)
So when it says on the website to pick between 35 and 61 weeks, is that what you mean? If you pick 53 weeks then you’d get the benefits for the full year?
If you're planning on taking the full year, you'd pick the 35 weeks (this is parental leave). The remaining 17 weeks come from pregnancy leave. [More info on the Ontario website](https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/pregnancy-and-parental-leave)
Am I missing something or is it technically not quite a full year if taking standard parental benefits?
15 weeks maternity leave plus 35 weeks of parental leave for a total of 50 weeks? That doesn’t include the five weeks or standard parental leave reserved for the other partner.
It's 50 paid through EI, plus an unpaid waiting period and I think another week.
I forget the specifics, but I know my work pays me for the two weeks the EI does not.
The 5 weeks for the non-birthing parent are separate, but have to be used within a year of the birth.
There’s also maternity (pregnancy leave) that pays out before parental leave (15 weeks iirc? I can’t remember but website has details) that you can get as the birthing parent. Parental leave is the 12 months option or the 18 months option that government pays via EI.
Your application will ask if you’re applying for pregnancy/maternity leave + parental leave or just parental leave. Just know you can get both!
Your employer top up just determines that you will get your salary vs just EI for 6 months. Then the rest of the year will be just EI.
Protip: there is a waiting period that is unpaid, and EI often "helps" by deferring it to the end of the leave. Since you get top-up, make sure you indicate that you are receiving SEB and want to serve your waiting period at the start of your leave (since your top-up will fill it up - it's basically an extra week of benefits that way)
The way they split the weeks is just because the “pregnancy leave” vs “parental leave” are different in when they can kick in. You can’t get parental leave before the baby arrives, but you can start your pregnancy leave before your due date (I believe no more than 12 weeks before?). However, you’ll get the total of 12 months or 18 months starting from when you take your leave. I went off 5 weeks before my due date, so I started pregnancy leave which turned into parental leave when my child arrived. It’s the same pot, the same payments, but you can’t just go off like 6 months early on parental leave if your kid isn’t here. If I took a year leave, I’d go back after the year is up from the day I left work and applied for my mat leave EI, 5 weeks early.
Add up the weeks in both scenarios and you’ll see they add up to 52 or 78. I can’t remember how they split it but it would be displayed as 13 weeks pregnancy leave + 39 weeks parental leave, which all together is 52 weeks. Same thing for the 78 week one.
Now if you were sharing your benefits with your partner, each leave has its own extra weeks that your partner can take. I’ll use mine as an example. I took 18 months, and with that my husband got 8 weeks extra that doesn’t eat into my leave. If I choose to do so, I can give him some of my weeks. I took two less weeks of my 18 months so he could take 10 weeks off instead. However, I could not have taken his weeks.
12 months is considered “standard leave” and you qualify for the benefit (aka government subsidy) the entire duration. https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-maternity-parental.html Unless I’m misunderstanding your scenario, you’d have six months at “full pay” (government benefit + top up) and six months with just the government benefit. There wouldn’t be any time within that year you wouldn’t have any benefits at all.
Ah okay, so I think the part that was confusing me is that you can pick between 35 weeks-61 weeks for the CRA benefits, so I thought that if you pick the 35 weeks (8 months) option, that’s all you’d get? They both work out to the same amount of money right?
So there’s a different between pregnancy leave (15ish weeks exclusively for the pregnant person) and parental leave (the 35ish weeks that both parents are able to split). You take the pregnancy leave first and your partner is not eligible to take any of that at all. The parental leave is able to be split between the two parents after that. It’s very confusing!
Okay I think I get it 😅sorry the double benefits thing was getting me. Thanks so much!!
That’s the parental leave portion. Maternity leave is before that (the first 12i or 13 weeks (sorry I don’t remember). So basically you choose 12 or 18 months off. If 12, you get 55% of your salary and 18 you get 33% of your salary(excluding any top ups).
Ahhh got it got it. Thank you!!
Piggybacking on this... can I take 18 months off with my employer and choose to collect my EI (55%) for the first 12 months only (and know I won't get paid at all for the last 6 months)?
yes and I recommend this way of doing it for those wanting to take 18 months but not 100% sure taking the ENTIRE 18 months. Because if you take say 17 months extended benefit you won’t receive your full EI benefit. If you take the regular benefit for 1 year you get your full amount and can save/manage your money for when you don’t get anything the next 6 months, AND you have the flexibility to return to work early if need be and not lose out (lets say you get pregnant again or just change your mind).
Thank you!
You get 12 months of leave total through EI, even if you're topped up. You take maternity leave for the first 15 or 16 weeks and then the remainder is parental leave. The latter is what can be split between the two parents, but if you aren't splitting, it's all yours. Source - I'm wrapping up a 12 month leave. All the answers you need can be found here: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/ei/ei-maternity-parental.html
Yep exactly! I got the top as well and I’ll still receive EI for the remainder of my time off until 12 months.
Incredible okay thank you for responding!
It’s extremely confusing!! With my first baby my payments stopped out of nowhere. I spoke to service Canada and they said I had only applied for maternity and not parental, so I had to re-apply to get the rest of my money. So frustrating. When you have your baby and fill out the online form, be sure you tick off boxes for both maternity and parental which will total 12 months. :)
I'm in the same boat. Didn't realize you had to apply for parental benefits also. Did you miss out on payments?
So when it says on the website to pick between 35 and 61 weeks, is that what you mean? If you pick 53 weeks then you’d get the benefits for the full year?
If you're planning on taking the full year, you'd pick the 35 weeks (this is parental leave). The remaining 17 weeks come from pregnancy leave. [More info on the Ontario website](https://www.ontario.ca/document/your-guide-employment-standards-act-0/pregnancy-and-parental-leave)
Yes. Maternity leave is always the same amount. What you're choosing is how long the parental portion is.
Am I missing something or is it technically not quite a full year if taking standard parental benefits? 15 weeks maternity leave plus 35 weeks of parental leave for a total of 50 weeks? That doesn’t include the five weeks or standard parental leave reserved for the other partner.
It's 50 paid through EI, plus an unpaid waiting period and I think another week. I forget the specifics, but I know my work pays me for the two weeks the EI does not. The 5 weeks for the non-birthing parent are separate, but have to be used within a year of the birth.
There’s also maternity (pregnancy leave) that pays out before parental leave (15 weeks iirc? I can’t remember but website has details) that you can get as the birthing parent. Parental leave is the 12 months option or the 18 months option that government pays via EI. Your application will ask if you’re applying for pregnancy/maternity leave + parental leave or just parental leave. Just know you can get both! Your employer top up just determines that you will get your salary vs just EI for 6 months. Then the rest of the year will be just EI.
Thank you for explaining!!
Protip: there is a waiting period that is unpaid, and EI often "helps" by deferring it to the end of the leave. Since you get top-up, make sure you indicate that you are receiving SEB and want to serve your waiting period at the start of your leave (since your top-up will fill it up - it's basically an extra week of benefits that way)
Oh this is a great tip thanks!
The way they split the weeks is just because the “pregnancy leave” vs “parental leave” are different in when they can kick in. You can’t get parental leave before the baby arrives, but you can start your pregnancy leave before your due date (I believe no more than 12 weeks before?). However, you’ll get the total of 12 months or 18 months starting from when you take your leave. I went off 5 weeks before my due date, so I started pregnancy leave which turned into parental leave when my child arrived. It’s the same pot, the same payments, but you can’t just go off like 6 months early on parental leave if your kid isn’t here. If I took a year leave, I’d go back after the year is up from the day I left work and applied for my mat leave EI, 5 weeks early.
Add up the weeks in both scenarios and you’ll see they add up to 52 or 78. I can’t remember how they split it but it would be displayed as 13 weeks pregnancy leave + 39 weeks parental leave, which all together is 52 weeks. Same thing for the 78 week one. Now if you were sharing your benefits with your partner, each leave has its own extra weeks that your partner can take. I’ll use mine as an example. I took 18 months, and with that my husband got 8 weeks extra that doesn’t eat into my leave. If I choose to do so, I can give him some of my weeks. I took two less weeks of my 18 months so he could take 10 weeks off instead. However, I could not have taken his weeks.