centauri

Hi Everyone,

I want to quit my job to become a full time student. Can i apply for Employment Insurance to support my family while I'm schooling? I appreciate for your reply.

Judy in Calgary

My understanding of the rules is that a person who became eligible for Employment Insurance through no fault of his/her own, e.g., someone who was laid off from his/her job, may be eligible for assistance with training that will provide him/her with skills that will help him/her to secure employment.

I think you have to draw up a Return to Work Plan with a Human Resources and Skills Development Canada case worker, and your course of study has to be approved.

My reading of the rules is that you can't just quit your job, go back to school, and claim Employment Insurance. (Under normal circumstances you have to demonstrate that you're job hunting while you're collecting EI benefits. You have to report how many job interviews you've attended each week, etc.)

Most people who undertake further education once they've started working do so on a part-time basis while they continue to work.

It's all explained here.
x

Surrey Expat

Nice try. Judy is quite right, if you quit your job and make yourself voluntarily unemployed you are not entitled to claim EI. If you are fired for just cause, then you are also not entitled to claim EI.

If you are laid off due to lack of work or fired without just cause then you can apply for EI as long as you have sufficient hours worked to qualify. To make a claim you will need a record of employment, which will state on it why you left. Retraining on EI is not easy or quick to get,

As other students do, you could get a part time job to fit in with your studies, or work and study part time.

Higher eduction studies in Canada are self funded.

centauri

montreal mike

It seems to me the odds are against you but it wouldn't hurt if you dropped in to your local EI office and popped the question. You may not get a simple Yes or No I suspect.

Surrey Expat

It also goes on to say:
Am I eligible for participation in Skills Development?

* To be eligible for participation in Skills Development, you must be an unemployed individual ("insured participant") as defined by Section 58 of the Employment Insurance Act. This means that you are an individual for whom:

a) an unemployment benefit period has been established or has ended within the 36 months (3 years) prior to the date of requesting assistance; or

b) a benefit period that included a maternity or parental claim has been established within the 60 months (5 years) prior to the date of requesting assistance, after which you remained out of the labour market in order to care for a newborn or newly adopted child and are now seeking to re-enter the labour force.

http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/e...ls.shtml#apply

You have to qualify or have qualified for EI in the past before you can access this, even then it is not automatic. 'I quit my job because I wanted to go back to school'. Lots of people do this.

Quitting your job does not qualify you for EI, therefore you would not have an established claim. If it were this easy, how many students would be claiming benefits rather than racking up student loans?

'Just Cause' is a reference to a reason for dismissal, not a choice or anything to do with how noble your education might be. Just cause means that an employer had a reason for letting an employee go without notice, usually misconduct of some sort.

How much time you spend training is a choice you make, if you cannot work or support your family that is a choice you are making, not a burden to be carried by tax payers.

In any event, none of us can definitively confirm or deny your eligibility, you should truck on round to the EI office and ask them as has been suggested. Don't hold your breath though.

dingbat

/\ /\ /\ /\ What he said. Snowballs chance in hell of getting EI, trust me. :curse:

centauri

Thanks guys for all your efforts. I did inquire in a Service Canada Center and guess what they said...Yes, I could apply E.I. Also, it's unfair to say that going back to school is a burden I pass on the taxpayers. I regularly pay my EI contributions for 3 years now and I think I have the right to claim my rightful benefits in this system if I wanted to.

Surrey Expat

Be very interested to know if your application is approved.

Mike1967

I'm no expert................. but I know my friend left his job in Forestry and signed on a Plumbing course, he got EI and expenses to travel to and from the college.................... I think it was something to do with going into the 'Trades'.

Now he is moving south to take a job and his girlfriend can leave her job and get EI as she is following her better half to a new location for work.

Sounds like this is not completely black and white................. but I have heard of some genuine claimants really struggleing to get a claim paid.

Mike

Surrey Expat

Don't see anything about voluntarily quiting and going back to school here.
http://www1.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/e..._leaving.shtml

Skills Development only provides cover for individuals who have an approved claim.

Saying yes you can apply for EI is a long way from saying your claim is approved. Anyone can apply for it, but whether they get it or not is a whole different thing. The only way you're going to find out for sure is quit your job, apply and see if you get it. If you are going to go to school whatever, what is there to lose? If going to school depends on getting EI, then you should to be very careful what you do, or you could be out of work and no EI.

montreal mike

[QUOTE=centauri;6112252]Thanks guys for all your efforts. I did inquire in a Service Canada Center and guess what they said...Yes, I could apply E.I. QUOTE]

I guess you got the standard answer. The person you spoke to was 'playing it safe'. Many times they do not have answers. It all depends who you spoke to. To me it seems a grey area. They must speak to their bosses. In some cases they are allowed a certain lattitide in that it is left to interpretation and judgement.

You might well end up collecting and, if so, good for you.