CERB Expanded to include more Canadians hit by COVID-19 – 980 CKNW

Under the old rules, you would not have qualified for the CERB if you lost one job due to COVID-19, but were still drawing income from another job. With recent changes to the CERB, if you are making $1,000 per month or less, you will qualify.

If you are a small business owner affected by the coronavirus pandemic, you may be able to qualify for certain government programs, including tax deferrals or business loans of up to $40,000. The CERB only applies to individuals, either employees or self-employed, whose jobs have been hurt by the response to the pandemic.

No. An employer can require you to use your vacation time. Once that vacation time has been used, you can’t be reimbursed for that time. This is true even if you would like to save your vacation time for use later in the year. The employer legally has the right to decide when you are to use your vacation time.

No, your pension does not count as income, meaning that if your sources of compensation have dried up due to COVID-19, you would likely qualify for the CERB.

The pay reduction does not in and of itself qualify you for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit. What it likely does is change the terms of employment between you and your employer. You may be able to claim constructive dismissal (meaning you treat the change as a termination of employment) and leave your job with full severance pay.

The Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS) is designed to allow employers to offset wages. It allows employees to receive 75% of their wages. However, if the net effect on the employee is that they are now only making 75% of their income (whether it comes from their employer or from the government by way of the CEWS) the employee can make a choice: They can choose to either accept the change and the possibility that the employer may not return their income to pre-COVID levels, or they may be able to treat the change as a constructive dismissal, and obtain severance pay.

If you apply for EI after March 15, 2020 you are automatically shifted to the CERB program. Therefore, you are receiving CERB payments, rather than EI payments. That means that you do not need to file weekly reports through Employment Insurance. You may have been processed through EI, but now you are in a completely different system that does not carry the same reporting requirements.

You will likely need to resume weekly reporting after the point at which the CERB ends, and you are moved back to Employment Insurance.

No. As of April 15, 2020 she does not qualify for the CERB program because she does not meet the $5,000 threshold.