What happens if I am late applying for Employment Insurance (EI)?
Whenever you have an interruption of your employment income, you can apply for Employment Insurance (EI) benefits. Your eligibility for EI will be depend on a number of factors, including whether you worked enough hours (known as “insurable hours”) in the 52-week period before your application for EI (known as the “qualifying period”). In general, you will need somewhere between 420 to 700 insurable hours in the qualifying period to be eligible for EI benefits.
Given this requirement to have a certain amount of insurable hours in the qualifying period, a delay in filing your application may negatively impact your claim. For example, if you waited 5 weeks after you stopped working to apply for EI, those 5 weeks where you did not accumulate any insurable hours will be a part of your qualifying period. While this may not be an issue for everyone, a 5-week delay could reduce your benefits or even be the difference between whether you have enough insurable hours to qualify for EI.
To avoid the consequences of a delay, the government has created an administrative policy that gives applicants a 4-week grace period to submit their application for EI. Under this policy, you must submit your application within 4 calendar weeks of the date you stopped working. If you submit your claim within the 4-week period, your eligibility will calculated as though you submitted your claim the week you stopped working. Therefore, it is critical that you submit your application within the 4-week period. If you wait longer, you run the risk of losing benefits or even being denied entirely.
Overcoming the delay: the Antedate request
In spite of the 4-week grace period, people are often late applying for EI. This can occur for various reasons. For some, they are expecting money from another source such as worker’s compensation. Others may simply not realize they could apply for EI until it’s too late. Whatever the reason might be, a delay of more than 4 weeks may have serious consequences for the applicant.
If you are in this situation, you can make a request to Antedate your claim for EI benefits using this form. This is essentially a request for Service Canada to assess your eligibility as though your claim was submitted on an earlier date (usually the week you stopped working). If your request is granted, you will be given benefits as though you had applied on the earlier date.
An Antedate Request will be granted if you can show the following:
- You qualified for EI benefits on the earlier date you are requesting, and
- You had good cause for the delay in making your claim throughout the entire period of the delay.
Although the first criteria may not be an issue for most applicants, showing good cause for the delay is considerably more difficult. Good cause has been defined by the courts as doing what a reasonable person would do to satisfy themselves of their rights under the Employment Insurance Act. This has come to mean that, in most cases, an individual who has good cause for the delay must have taken active steps to inquire whether they are eligible for EI and reasonably concluded they either cannot apply or should wait to apply.
Each antedate request is assessed on its own merits so it is difficult to speak generally about what will be considered good cause for delay. In some cases, good cause may be found where an applicant waited to apply because they were expecting money from another source that would preclude their eligibility. As well, good cause may be found where the applicant was given incorrect information about the EI program by either government workers or a third party with expertise in EI issues. Conversely, it is not good cause to delay an application because an individual was expecting new employment or waiting to receive their Record of Employment. Only in exceptional cases will ignorance of one’s right to receive EI be considered good cause for delay.
Ultimately, you should apply for EI no longer than 4 weeks after you stopped working to avoid any loss of benefits or a denial of eligibility. If you delay beyond the 4-week grace period, your only recourse to recovering the lost benefits will be to request an antedate. If you have delayed in applying for EI and think you may have good cause, it is best to contact a lawyer or other professional with expertise in EI issues for advice.
This is legal information and not legal advice. If you need further information or need legal advice, please call our Intake Line at 416-441-1764 ext. 1.