Parents of twins snag double EI benefits

Boards of Referees must apply the legislation as it is written in the Act and Regulations. A Board cannot extend benefits where no legislation exists to do so. In other words, only Parliament can change the EI rules.

I would expect that , by now, the appellant has been notified that the Board's decision will not be implemented pending the Department's appeal to the Umpire. The Umpire could refer the matter back to the same Board of Referees or a different Board to make it's decision on the legislation as written or simply quash the Board's decision.

Should the Umpire, for some reason, capriciously agree with the Board the department can then appeal to the Supreme Court to have the Umpire's erroneous decision overturned.

Even presuming an amendment to the EI rules retroactivity is unlikely.

This begs the question.......how many hydro workers does it take to change a light bulb????

I think this would be a good thing. Rules need to change as society changes and life changes. Why shouldn't EI rules change too? This would be good for two parent families on one or more births. I am on EI for mat leave and my hubby can't and he's between jobs, being in the trades. We have only my EI for income at the moment and barely scraping by, especially with a newborn!!

quit sucking off the systems teat! all of you. why dont you spend your time and effort getting a real job or even better, create a business, get more education, and dont be afraid to stick your neck out a little. i promise it wont work if you dont try! all you have to do is look a few hundred miles south to see an ineffective social system.

EI should not be used to implement social policy - ie to increase birth rates. All workers pay into this yet less than 35% will ever collect maternity benefits. In the mean time, a worker who becomes ill is entitled to only 17 weeks of benefits, and any worker can become sick.
EI is INSURANCE...which means it is paid out for unplanned leave from work, pregnancy is planned.
Maternity benefits should come from General Revenue, EI should be increased from 55% of wages to 75% of wages for all, and sick benefits should be the maximum allowable weeks equal to the entitlement for unemployed workers.
The government must not be allowed to skim surplus EI premiums into general revenue, if there is enough to cover claims with an additional cushiou, then both worker and employer premiums should be cut, which would stimulate job growth.

I'm guessing that a lot of people probably wouldn't even want to take two parental leaves because they would have to survive on 55% of their paycheques (to a maximum of about $375 a week) for that much longer, which is virtually impossible when adding in the additional cost of newborns. The reason this couple even wanted to double their leave is likely because they are both Federal employees who get their leave pay topped up to 95% of their salary (without a maximum ceiling). This extra pay comes from where? Us, the taxpayers. It offends me that my tax dollars pay for someone else to stay home with their kids and easily maintain their standard of living while mine has to suffer, or I have to go back to work early, because I can't survive on half my pay. Why do Federal employees deserve to afford to stay home with their children more than the rest of us?

My poor parents got ripped off, had to pay for child care and had to work. Finally someone smart has figured out how to make the system work properly

Just another Gov. family sucking the money out of us taxpayers. How about paying for your own kids you leeches? When they do their income taxes they may have to pay it all back anyway. Gov. overpaid employees are already suckin' much tax money out of us.

I am concerned that they decided to apply as soon as she was pregnant, not after they had the babies and for some reason were overwhelmed. On a case by case basis, this might be a good thing to have available in the legislation. This case, though, with the excuse being that they had no family around them, sets up a two-tierd system. If you can get topped up to 95%, like these employees, then you stay home. I am a federal employee, and this makes me sick. I am not more entitled than other Canadians, my children are not somehow more important to Canada. They may be more important to me, but not all taxpayers. As social policy, this is awful. I am shocked by the sense of entitlement these parents have. I, as a taxpayer, would much rather support extended EI leave for parents of children who are disabled rather than mutiples. Try chasing two other toddlers and a multiple while having no family in the province, like I did. I guarantee you the toddlers are busier than the newborns. This is called family- children are the best thing that ever happened to my husband and I, and we didn't expect applause or money from the taxpayers over what other families got in EI. You can actually be good parents by being more self-sufficient. For Pete's ake, we already get all kinds of benefits from the healthcare and EI systems- I have to agree that sometimes Canadians lose their minds and expect everything is owed to them because they pay taxes. No two tiered system- this is an atrocity!

Having had twins, and only one of us being able to collect parental leave, I think it is a good thing to be able to allow both parents to stay home. Multiple birth newborns are alot of work, and a huge adjustment. However, if what I read is true, it is not fair that government workers get topped off to 95% of their salary with no cap. I/we had to manage on the regular $300 (approx) that the average person gets, and feeding a family of 6 is very hard to do with that.

Whatever happened to accountability??? If you want to bring children into this world than you should make sure you can afford to. We are living in a world where nobody wants to take personal responsability, if someone goes to a bar gets drunk and kills someone, then it's the bartenders fault. Now, if someone wants to have kids, it's the taxpayers responsibility to pay for them. What is next, why not give parental leave for 48 months until they can go to school, there's an argument for everything. It's bad enough that these to government workers get better pay and benefits than the average person, but now we are going to pay for both of them to stay home for 2/3 of a year taking home more than if they were working because they now have less expenses(children expenses aside). If government workers are getting topped up to 95%, shouldn't we just change those rules so anyone collecting EI for maternaty gets 95%??? Maybe instead of giving more benefits to people that already get good benefits, we should look at bringing up the minimum standards for sick leave and vacation leave to those in the private sector that really need them. I can only imagine how frustrating this conversation must be for those people who don't have children.

I think it is wonderfull for the children to have both parents home, not to mention the help for the mom as well. Being federal employees, both parents would get top up, thus not forced to live on a grosly reduced salerly, like most of us.
I certainly believe that the EI system needs some up dates, mostly to NOT put a cap on benifits. Many woman now have high paying jobs, and have worked hard to establish themselves in the work force prior to having children, then are forced to live on a very small salery while caring for their babies, and in some cased do not even get 55% of their own salery. Why have a cap in the first place? Why penalize parents who pay taxes and EI from every pay for years, only to recieve a small portion of what they have paid in? Some serious changes need to be made to bring the EI system up to date.

Federal Civil Servants scamming the system for their own benefit? shocker

Well - how wonderful two for the price of one- great that parents can stay home and nuture their children and each other- now what about some considertation for Migrant wokers who can not collect their benefits regarding claims for parental benefits- if antedate more then a year - although the legislation states a longer roll back period. All parents need support both financially and legally from E.I. We need to look at the act and provide a decent amount of funding for these programmes.

EI system needs to be revamped...$786 take home every two weeks is borderline poverty. Yes, I planned ahead and saved money before my maternity leave, but others are not so lucky. I am upset that federal employees are treated differently than the rest of us (what about all those equal rights we keep giving to everyone else in this country), but admittedly, perhaps, I am just jealous. Who wouldn't be? I make good money in my trade, but I am well educated and I pay a considerable amount of taxes. I am not eligible for any child subsidies (other than the $100/month UCCB)yet others (who don't pay into the tax base) collect paycheque after paycheque from the government and do nothing all day. Why is this fair at all???????? How about a system that pays back proportional to what you put in??? I am tired of our "socialist" tendencies and our borderline communism.

I think this is ridiculous! I just began my mat leave with my first born and have been unable to work for my entire pregnancy. My husband and I don't rely on the mat pay, it's a nice bonus for us and that is the joy of PLANNING a pregnancy. Why do people keep expecting our government to bail them out when they have made a decision that they can not afford themselves? I'm sure it would be nice for parents of twins to both be able to stay home, as it would for any parents and my advice to them is that if they could afford the fertility treatments to make more than baby, they should have saved enough for the other parent to take unpaid time off. Not to mention, what about the wonderful people in our world who choose to be childless? When do they get their 52 weeks of paid time off? Or do they not deserve it because they are only on the planet to pay for our children's benefits?

Ei is a good thing overall. I mean, we are fortunate to live in a place that helps a person out when times get tough. That being said, 55% isn't nearly enough, and the system is exploited all to heck. My issue is this: The waiting weeks some provinces have is a trial of torture. Suppose you are living paycheque to paycheque, like most of us are, and you lose your job. You have to wait somethig like two weeks before you get your first cheque usually, and that's a half one. Bills don't wait.

Regarding the parents getting double the time off for having twins, I don't agree with. Time still goes on. They got X amount of time off to get adjusted with the kids and what not. Just because you have two kids shouldn't mean you get twice the time. It isn't about how many kids, it's about recovery time for the mom and adjustment time...or at least it should be. How long would that octo mom get off? LOL

The system isn't perfect...it isn't even fair or half decent for the most part, but it's all we got. Anyone have a better idea, get it in to your MP and see if soemthing can get done about it.

Not only will the parents receive the UI benefits if they both are working for the federal government they will be receiving 90% of their wages. I would like to know where the UI system was when I was taking care of a 1 and 4 year old while my wife could not because of chronic illness. I am amazed that any multple birth chidren survived in the past without both parents around. I think this is a very bad decision!
I really do not have much sympathy for this couple. I had no family around me when I had to work through my wife's illness.

I have to live on 800.00 a month which is extremely difficult while raising two young children. I think that the EI system needs a serious readjustment, why should we suffer while government workers not only get double the time off but almost double the amount that the rest of us receive?????

I can only shake my head in disbelief when the unemployment rate is at it's highest in years and govt. employees are enjoying 35 weeks of paid vacation because they had twins. EI is the top insurance scam in the country. All working Canadians are forced to pay premiums for insurance that they may not ever be able to collect. I recently collected sick benefits because of a collapsed lung. I was cut off after 12 weeks, hardly enought time to heal from a collapsed lung but i guess if i had twins i could have had benefits paid for an additional 23 weeks. P.S. Don't quit or get fired from your job for any reason, if you do , you get nothing!