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So I am expecting my third in September and am wondering if anyone knows if you can work a limited amount of hours while receiving EI without being penalized?
I still need to bring in some income but EI is a joke. I was thinking maybe I could switch to after school care as I know I won't be able to handle the newborn with multiple full-time kids.
I should also mention that I am in Alberta if that makes a difference.
You can only bring in $50 a week. Any more than that, they subtract the extra amount dollar for dollar from your EI payment. So if your EI payment is $200 a week (just pulled out a number) and you make $100 a week, your EI would be reduced to $150 a week.
I am due with #4 in August, but I'm not using the EI, nor have I been paying into it. It's only 55% of your last year's earnings, after deductions. For us, that's simply not enough. So I'm terminating my "difficult" kids (which I have to do to stay in ratios because of the new Bill 10 out here) and running on 3 daycare kids, plus my own 3 kids, during the summer, taking my 2 weeks' vacation to have baby, and my husband is splitting his vacation time around that to help me out with the extra kids. The 3 I'll have are super-easy, have been with me forever, and their parents are flexible about vacation timing. Then school goes back in, and I'll run with a reduced crew for probably 6 months, maybe fill the extra spot after Christmas. It will be less money than I'm making now, but definitely more than I'd get out of EI. I'm thinking of it as "mat leave pay" so we'll budget for it.
Also, just so you know, if you pay into the EI for self-employed program, and apply to use the benefits, you have to continue to pay into it after that for as long as you're self-employed. As in, you can't pay in for a year, use the payments for a year, and then opt out of the program. You're stuck paying into it unless you have a career change. That, plus the peanuts I would have received, made it not worth it for me.
*I'd call the CRA and check everything, since we're in different provinces, but as far as I know, it's federal and shouldn't change province-to-province.