Access to Parental Benefits in Canada

Abstract

Along with subsidized childcare, parental benefits are an important policy tool to help parents balance paid work and childcare. In Canada, only employed parents who meet certain eligibility criteria can receive benefits. This means that, whereas the birth or the adoption of a child creates new expenses for all families, only some families in Canada are eligible for benefits. And while parental benefits in Quebec are paid through the Quebec Parental Insurance Program (QPIP), these benefits are paid through the Employment Insurance (EI) program in the rest of Canada. After almost three decades of increased accessibility to benefits between 1971 and 1996, the replacement of the Unemployment Insurance (UI) program with Employment Insurance (EI) in 1997 made access to parental benefits more difficult for families in Canada. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the eligibility criteria for parental benefits were temporarily relaxed. On September 25, 2022, the federal government quietly reinstated pre-pandemic eligibility criteria to access parental benefits. What does this mean for families in Canada?