Employment Insurance Maternity Benefits
When someone collects EI benefits for maternity leave, they are actually receiving two types of EI benefits. The first 17 weeks of the claim are paid as “maternity benefits” and the subsequent 35 weeks of the claim are paid as “parental benefits”.
To be eligible for either benefit in the first place, at the time of application, your income must have dropped by at least 40% of what it regularly is. This should not normally be difficult, as people do not apply for EI until they have stopped working entirely.
When you are collecting maternity benefits, your weekly benefit gets reduced dollar for dollar by any income you earn. When you are collecting parental benefits you can earn additional income up to 25% of your weekly EI entitlement (approx. $100 in most cases). Any income over this reduces your parental benefit dollar-for-dollar.
Once you stop collecting maternity/parental benefits, you can earn any amount of income and there is never a requirement to repay these benefits (as there can be with regular EI benefits).