Did you know that the EI Sickness Benefits payout recently increased from 15 weeks to 26 weeks?
You may want to ask yourself how this recent change impacts your Group Disability Coverage. Ultimately, it’s up to the employer to decide how to proceed given the changes.
What does EI Provide? 55% coverage to a maximum of $650 per week. This benefit is also taxable.
STD can often be implemented to increase the overall amount of coverage to ensure their employees will not suffer a significant loss of income in the event of a claim. If you are providing Short Term Disability (STD), you likely don’t want to make any changes until you know what the impact will be to the EI rate reduction program.
If you have Group Long Term Disability (LTD), you may want to change the waiting period to 26 weeks. This should provide you with a bit of savings given that you are reducing the risk to the carrier. However, you are not obligated to do so. There may be value keeping the LTD where it is, especially if you don’t have STD. This is because it can provide the employee with a higher payout sooner compared to relying on STD for the full 26 weeks.
If you don’t offer any sort of Group Disability as a part of your employee benefits, I would encourage you to consider doing so. Income is important, and most employees will not go source this type of coverage on their own.