CERB or EI?

Can I claim? Which to claim? How to claim?

4 min readMay 20, 2020

The previous discussion was about Saving Accounts. This was to be about Chequing Accounts.

The pandemic stepped in-between and threw a spanner in the works. For health and safety reasons Governments shut down the economy. It’s been 66 days and today was the first day of reopening in Toronto.

7.8 million have claimed the Canada Economic Response Benefit [CERB] so far. More have had their income reduced. People are asking how to claim the Government of Canada support for individuals. Some are paying upto $160 to tax agencies for having their claims processed. This is simple — do not pay anyone for it. Let me help you.

CERB provides a taxable income support to workers who satisfy condition sets A, B and C.

Set A [must satisfy all criteria]:

You did not quit your job voluntarily.

You reside in Canada and are 15 years old or more.

You earned $5,000 or more before taxes in the last 12 months, or in 2019, from any combination of employment / self-employment income / provincial benefit payments [related to maternity or parental leave].

Set B [must satisfy one criteria]:

Your work hours have reduced because of COVID-19.

You have stopped / will stop working because of COVID-19.

You are unable to work because of COVID-19 [for example, because you are taking care of someone].

Your EI regular / fishing benefits have / will get exhausted between 2019 Dec 29 and 2020 Oct 03.

Set C [must satisfy one criteria]:

If applying for the first time, you have not earned / don’t expect to earn over $1,000 for working at least 14 consecutive days during the claim period [see table below].

If applying for a subsequent time, you have not earned / don’t expect to earn over $1,000 for working during the claim period [see table below].

For employees:

If your main income source last year was as an employee, and you worked 30 hours a week or more, you should apply through Service Canada’s EI program.

If your main income source last year was as an employee, and you worked less than 30 hours a week for 8 months or more, you should apply through Service Canada’s EI program.

If your main income source last year was as an employee, and you worked less than 30 hours a week for less than 8 months, you should apply through CRA’s CERB program.

For self-employed:

If your main income source last year was as self-employed, and you applied for EI fishing benefits that have / will get exhausted between 2019 Dec 29 and 2020 Oct 03, you should apply through Service Canada’s EI program.

If your main income source last year was as self-employed, and you applied for EI fishing benefits that were not / will not get exhausted between 2019 Dec 29 and 2020 Oct 03, you should apply through CRA’s CERB program.

For all:

EI claim has to be filed within 4 weeks of becoming eligible [for example, contract termination / furlough / lay off].

Anyone who became eligible for EI regular or sickness benefits on 2020 Mar 15 or later will have their EI claim automatically processed as CERB [i.e., they will receive $1,000 every 2 weeks for 16 weeks or till 2020 Sep 26, whichever is earlier]. Subsequently they will automatically receive income support as per EI calculation [“Getting the Canada Emergency Response Benefit does not affect your EI entitlement.”] EI reports are to be filled in every 2 weeks. There is a substantial backlog in processing CERB applications through Service Canada.

CERB through CRA provides $2,000 every 4 weeks for 4 pre-defined periods from the 7 listed below. The 4 periods claimed may be consecutive [like 3, 4, 5 and 6] or non-consecutive [like 2, 4, 5 and 6]. You can apply no later than 2020 Nov 28 [or is it still Dec 02?] for retroactive payment.