Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

I am so glad to be self-employed. No jumping through hoops, no dealing with the endless bureaucracy. If I weren't self-employed I would certainly prefer to not pay UI premiums and in return not be eligible to collect UI.

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Please save my time for searching about you. How are you connected to EI&co?

Hi Egidijus,

I work for Service Canada in the call centre for Employment Insurance.

Jordan

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

I would recommend.

Please save my time for searching about you. How are you connected to EI&co?

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

My recent headaches with EI is that the bureaucracy is there to find a reason to NOT pay you, when I think the default should be to pay first. They can always reclaim any overpaymens on my tax form.

Erik,

Sorry, but your understanding of the back end of things is entirely incorrect.

Service Canada's mandate is to find all reasonable methods to pay claims, and all Citizen Service Officers are required to assume that a claimant is payable until otherwise determined.

While it is also a mandate to avoid overpayments wherever possible, until all of the information is received to be able to finalize a claim, there cannot be any payments. That has nothing to do with avoiding overpayments, however. It has to do with file integrity. Service Canada cannot process your claim if you have a missing ROE because without it, there is no way of knowing how many hours you worked, how much you earned, and what reason you stopped working, amongst other important matters.

1) they can't process your claim because I worked 4 days for a small employer with no separation paper, despite having separation papers for the previous 300 days of work. Honesty is punished.

Honesty is not punished, however dishonety is punished. If your ROE came in later, and Service Canada found out that you quit a job or were dismissed and failed to declare it on your application, you could be required to reimburse all payments received plus a 50% penalty, plus you would need more hours to qualify on your next two claims or for up to five years.

All you have to do is request an ROE from the employer, and if they refuse to give you one, then contact Service Canada and they will get it from the employer.

2) I was cut-off because I didn't attend a training meeting on how to write a resume because I was was working and phoned in and left a message that I couldn't attend because I was working. Another month without payments to sort that out.

I cannot explain why that happened, other than you left a message and the person may not have had your SIN or maybe they were out of the office on vacation. Normally, if you call the number on the General Information Session (GIS) invitation and speak to an agent, the agent will note it to file and there would be no stop on your benefits.

Also, the GIS meetings are not about how to write résumés, it's about how EI works, about job searching, and there is some small aspect of writing résumés. Those sessions are very important because it also gives you an opportunity to submit your job search history.

So the last time I was seasonally unemployed I didn't even bother to apply, just lived off of my savings.

That's your choice, but certainly not one that I would recommend. If you were to understand things a little better, it might help you to make more informative decisions.

The threats are in the new proposal to take any job:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stor...ei-finley.html

That's a lot of media hype. Sorry, but until there are actual changes that are published, there's nothing different about job search requirements.

Jordan

[Erik Malmsten]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Hi Erik,

80% of EI claims are processed within 28 days. Many claims are processed within one business day of all of the documents being registered to the claim.

Not sure what you meant by "...without threats." That's the only part of your message that I don't understand. Please clarify.

Thanks, Jordan

My recent headaches with EI is that the bureaucracy is there to find a reason to NOT pay you, when I think the default should be to pay first. They can always reclaim any overpaymens on my tax form.
1) they can't process your claim because I worked 4 days for a small employer with no separation paper, despite having separation papers for the previous 300 days of work. Honesty is punished.
2) I was cut-off because I didn't attend a training meeting on how to write a resume because I was was working and phoned in and left a message that I couldn't attend because I was working. Another month without payments to sort that out.

So the last time I was seasonally unemployed I didn't even bother to apply, just lived off of my savings.

The threats are in the new proposal to take any job:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stor...ei-finley.html

[Paul Beckwith]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

This thread is pointless. It is obvious that there will never be a "next federal government" since the way Dear Leader is heading he will abolish elections claiming that there is only one party suitable to govern Canada.

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

If you have an actual figure I'd be interested in what it is. But okay let's assume that 5% of employers are competent enough to produce a correctly calculated payroll and submit the payroll deductions to Revenue Canada on time (because CRA is very quick to fine those that try to finance themselves by delaying the submission of payroll deductions). That still does not explain the long processing period for the vast majority of EIB claims.

Zeljko,

I have already outlined a number of reasons that processing can go beyond 28 days. The backlogs are a lot smaller these days due to a number of automated processes being added in recent months, and a group of specialised agents are now available on the phone to do some of the calculations while the claimant waits.

Jordan

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Zeljko,

I'm surprised that you would make a statistical statement like that. Late ROE's account for a lot more than 1% of claim delays, and mostly due to employer delays. Then there is a percentage of ROE's that have errors on them, and it could take days to get them resolved. Also, it is extremely rare when Service Canada will fine an employer for these kinds of issues, so employers are far less compliant than you think.

Jordan

If you have an actual figure I'd be interested in what it is. But okay let's assume that 5% of employers are competent enough to produce a correctly calculated payroll and submit the payroll deductions to Revenue Canada on time (because CRA is very quick to fine those that try to finance themselves by delaying the submission of payroll deductions). That still does not explain the long processing period for the vast majority of EIB claims.

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

You will find that 99% of employers do issue the ROE on time, especially as they can be in difficulty with EIB if they do not.

Zeljko,

I'm surprised that you would make a statistical statement like that. Late ROE's account for a lot more than 1% of claim delays, and mostly due to employer delays. Then there is a percentage of ROE's that have errors on them, and it could take days to get them resolved. Also, it is extremely rare when Service Canada will fine an employer for these kinds of issues, so employers are far less compliant than you think.

Jordan

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Or maybe we are both wrong and the surplus is all gone. However, since the federal government has siphoned off the surplus in years past to pay down the national debt then it's no surprise that they may have to put some of that money back into the program it was intended for and which once had a 57 billion surplus. http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/stor...weston-ei.html

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Zeljko,

Not all of the information is submitted by the claimant. The employer must submit a Record of Employment (ROE), and even though the ROE may already be on file, it could have errors that need to be corrected, or the claimant may have had a contentious reason for separation that needs to be reviewed with both the claimant and employer.

Also, the claimant may have submitted other information which may be subject to review. For example, the claimant may be related to the employer; the claimant may be taking a full-time training course or have other availability issues; the claimant may be self-employed outside of regular work; the claimant may have other previously-undisclosed issues that may need to be reviewed; etc. These are all things that Ontario Works would not necessarily have access to through WebAOBLink.

The "huge surplus" is rapidly shrinking due to the increase in claims, increase in services provided, and decrease in contributions since 2008. If it continues to shrink at its current pace, it will be gone by 2015 or so. Right now it's less than half of what it was four years ago.

Jordan

I am aware of all those issues. And yes we had access to all of that information at OW as our continued issuance of OW depended on the status of the EIB claim and whether the delay was within or not within the clients control. You will find that 99% of employers do issue the ROE on time, especially as they can be in difficulty with EIB if they do not. We were always well versed in what was happening with a clients EIB claim. Unlike say WSIB where we were not very well versed.

The surplus is still very much a surplus.

OW asks for many more items and information than EIB ever does as OW is needs based and EIB is not. Like bank records, vehicle ownerships, rent or mortgage documents, ROEs, RSPs and we still smoked EIB in our response time to grant cases.

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Zeljko,

Not all of the information is submitted by the claimant. The employer must submit a Record of Employment (ROE), and even though the ROE may already be on file, it could have errors that need to be corrected, or the claimant may have had a contentious reason for separation that needs to be reviewed with both the claimant and employer.

Also, the claimant may have submitted other information which may be subject to review. For example, the claimant may be related to the employer; the claimant may be taking a full-time training course or have other availability issues; the claimant may be self-employed outside of regular work; the claimant may have other previously-undisclosed issues that may need to be reviewed; etc. These are all things that Ontario Works would not necessarily have access to through WebAOBLink.

The "huge surplus" is rapidly shrinking due to the increase in claims, increase in services provided, and decrease in contributions since 2008. If it continues to shrink at its current pace, it will be gone by 2015 or so. Right now it's less than half of what it was four years ago.

Jordan

[Zeljko Kitich]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Hi Erik,

Employment Insurance is insurance, however since it is managed by Service Canada, it works differently than private insurance companies.

Private insurance companies must have a lot of capital in order to operate. The only capital base that Service Canada can access, other than from premiums paid, would be the federal tax pool.

The EI premiums that workers and employers pay don't cover all of the services that the Government of Canada pay to and for unemployed and underemployed workers. The premiums are not calculated to generate profits, unlike private sector insurance companies. Otherwise, EI premiums would be much higher.

80% of EI claims are processed within 28 days. Many claims are processed within one business day of all of the documents being registered to the claim.

Service Canada does not e-mail job opportunities to EI claimants. Anyone can register on http://jobs.gc.ca or other public or private job search engines in order to receive automated e-mail alerts for suitable jobs in their area. At the end of the Internet bi-weekly EI reports, there is generally a message with some local jobs available.

Not sure what you meant by "...without threats." That's the only part of your message that I don't understand. Please clarify.

Thanks, Jordan

EI has a huge surplus, the surplus has been growing and growing as the program has been curtailed in what it offers the premium payers.

As a former OW worker I've lost track of the number of EIB claimants that had to come to us first because EIB was taking much more than a day to process their claim even though everything had been submitted to EIB. I know everything was submitted because we used to have rights to check their EIB file.

Because it took EIB so long to process claims, these people applying for OW were placed in a hard spot because OW would be reimbursed in full from their first EIB payments. This was the only way that EIB would proceed to reimburde OW. So they were basically in a position of wait the 6 weeks or more now or wait for them as soon as EIB came into pay because the funds were redirected to OW.

OW can be very quickly granted if all the information is brought in. EIB asks for far less information than OW but takes a lot longer to grant. I never understood why that was.

[Jordan S. Berson]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

As for EI I thought that it was Insurance paid for by employers and employees, not from taxes --It's not a government hand-out program. It should be run as a service, quickly giving people their first cheque and emailling suitable jobs without threats.

Hi Erik,

Employment Insurance is insurance, however since it is managed by Service Canada, it works differently than private insurance companies.

Private insurance companies must have a lot of capital in order to operate. The only capital base that Service Canada can access, other than from premiums paid, would be the federal tax pool.

The EI premiums that workers and employers pay don't cover all of the services that the Government of Canada pay to and for unemployed and underemployed workers. The premiums are not calculated to generate profits, unlike private sector insurance companies. Otherwise, EI premiums would be much higher.

80% of EI claims are processed within 28 days. Many claims are processed within one business day of all of the documents being registered to the claim.

Service Canada does not e-mail job opportunities to EI claimants. Anyone can register on http://jobs.gc.ca or other public or private job search engines in order to receive automated e-mail alerts for suitable jobs in their area. At the end of the Internet bi-weekly EI reports, there is generally a message with some local jobs available.

Not sure what you meant by "...without threats." That's the only part of your message that I don't understand. Please clarify.

Thanks, Jordan

[Gary Ruben]

Re: Canada - Next Federal Gov't?

Did the chesstalk debate occasion any person who posted in the threads to change their mind?

The climate change group all defended their position like Dr. Euwe defended the French Winawar against Alekhine.

Unlike Anand - Gelfand, it was entertaining. :)

BTW, Bob Rae did not say (as far as I know) he would not accept a draft.