FALLING UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PROTECTION
FOR CANADA'S UNEMPLOYED

Impact of Higher Eligibility Requirements

Insurance coverage has fallen with each successive increase in the hours and weeks of work needed to qualify and corresponding reductions in maximum benefit weeks.

There were four rounds of changes in the 1990's.

The first two rounds, one at the end of 1990 (Bill C-21), and a second in early 1993 ( C-113 ), reduced protection from 74% of the unemployed in 1990 to 57% in 1993.

The third round came with the 1994 Budget. The legislation cut the length of the benefit period by as much as 50% for many claimants, and laid the base for the benefit structure that would be used for the introduction of Employment Insurance in 1996.

The tougher eligibility rules in the 1994 legislation reduced insurance coverage from 57% of the unemployed in 1993 to 42% in 1996.

The fourth round came with the introduction of Employment Insurance, and the conversion of the “weeks system” as the measure of labour force attachment to an “hours system.” More significantly, EI more than tripled the minimum qualifying hours. It also reduced further the length of the benefit period, and quadrupled the weeks to qualify for thousands of part-time workers.

next