Canada Increases Employment Insurance Benefit, Releases Important Date
- Employment and Social Development Canada announced the new maximum weekly EI benefit, effective December 27, 2026
- The $20 increase covers every EI benefit type, from regular and sickness to maternity, parental, and caregiving benefits
- Individual payments depend on a claimant's earnings, meaning not everyone will receive the full $749 ceiling amount
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Canada's Employment Insurance programme will pay eligible claimants a higher maximum weekly benefit from December 27, 2026, after Employment and Social Development Canada confirmed the ceiling will climb from $729 to $749.
The increase of $20 per week covers every category of EI support, including regular benefits for laid-off workers, sickness benefits, maternity benefits, standard parental benefits, caregiving benefits, and compassionate care benefits. Workers who begin a claim on or after December 27, 2026, will fall under the new rate regardless of when they were let go or when they filed their application.
Extended parental benefits also rise
The extended parental benefit ceiling will also move upward, from $437 to $449 per week. This option, which is available to parents who choose to spread their leave over a longer period, is calculated differently from other benefit types.
For most EI benefit categories, the weekly payment is set at 55% of a claimant's average insurable weekly earnings. Extended parental benefits, however, are calculated at 33% of those earnings. Because of how these percentages work in practice, many claimants will receive a weekly amount below the new $749 maximum.
Who sctually gets the full $749
The $749 figure represents the upper ceiling, not a standard payment that every claimant can count on. To receive the full maximum, a worker must have earned at or above the new maximum insurable earnings threshold of $70,800 per year. Anyone earning below that figure will receive a proportionally lower weekly benefit, calculated against their actual average insurable weekly earnings.
The new threshold of $70,800 replaces the previous annual cap and sets the boundary above which additional income is no longer factored into the EI calculation.
The changes take effect based on claim start dates, so workers whose claims began before December 27, 2026, will continue under the rates that applied when their claim opened.
Source: Legit.ng
