Question Period Note: EMPLOYMENT INSURANCE PROCESSING

Employment Insurance Program Performance

• The Employment Insurance program is one of the pillars of Canada’s social safety net and plays a pivotal role in the lives of workers, providing vital income support when they need it most.

• The Department makes every effort to serve all individuals fairly and in a timely manner.

• Service Canada exceeds its service standards to finalize 80% of claims within 28 days of the date an Employment Insurance application is received. For the current year, as of April 30, 2025, Service Canada processed 88.9% of claims within 28 days, compared to 86.7% for the same period in 2024-25.

• The Employment Insurance program continues to look for ways to improve services to clients including the use of digital tools. The increased use of automation for processing claims and the offer of tools such as the Employment Insurance Benefits Estimator enables Canadians to access timely information and services.

EI Processing Speed of Payment

Service Canada’s key client service performance indicator for timeliness of EI claims processing is Speed of Payment (SOP). The target is to issue a payment, or notification of non-payment, to clients within 28 days of filing their application for benefits, 80% of the time.

In 2025-26, as of April 30, 2025 (the latest available statistic), 88.9% of EI payments, or notifications of non-payment, were made within 28 days for the whole of Canada, compared to 86.7% over the same period in 2024-25, 76.7% in 2023-24 and 72% in 2022-23. By region, on April 30, 2025, the year-to-date (April) results for 2025-25 were:
• 92.3% for the Atlantic Region (compared to 90.8% in 2024-25, 86.1% in 2023-24 and 80.6% in 2022-23)
• 86.5% for the Quebec Region (compared to 84.4% in 2024-25, 62.3% in 2023-24 and 61.2% in 2022-23)
• 89.1% for the Ontario Region (compared to 86.3% in 2024-25, 79.3% in 2023-24 and 73.9% in 2022-23)
• 89.2% for the Western Canada and Territories Region (compared to 87.3% in 2024-25, 81.5 % in 2023-24 and 76.1% in 2022-23)

In 2025-26, as of April 30, 2025, the average number of days it took for a client to receive their first EI benefit payment was 17 days, compared to an average of 18 days over the same period in 2024-25, 23 days in 2023-24 and 29 days in 2022-23.

In 2025-26, as of April 30, 2025, 212,363 EI Initial and Renewal applications have been received and 216,794 have been processed.

EI Inventory

The EI inventory is composed of Initial, Renewal and Revised claims.
• Initial claim: a new application to establish an EI claim
• Renewal claim: an application to renew or reactivate an existing claim that has already been established and has weeks of entitlement remaining
• Revised claim: created when updated or new information is received during the claim lifecycle. New information may be provided by the client, the employer, or by third parties

The EI network prioritizes Initial and Renewal claims to put clients into pay.

The Department received multi-year funding to reduce the inventory to a sustainable level (by the end of 2024-25). The Inventory Stabilization Strategy (ISS) began in 2022-23 and the EI network hired and trained 640 incremental resources in 2022-23 which enabled the Department to focus on inventory reduction and meeting service standards in 2023 24. The ISS initiatives supported significant reduction of claim inventories while positioning the network to continue meeting its service standards. Between April 1, 2022, and March 31, 2025, the EI inventories were reduced by over 845,000 claims (approximately 80%). New EI funding was approved in 2025 for 3 years to maintain inventories levels and to meet speed of pay service standards.

If pressed
• In 2024-25, the Department made significant progress in reducing the claims inventory and meeting its service standards. This was possible due to investments received in 2022 and earlier this year that enabled the Department to train and upskill its workforce, as well as workload strategies and process innovations. With this investment, the Department is exceeding its service standards both for processing claims and answering calls.

• In 2024-25, the Department provided payment or notice of non-payment within 19 days, on average, after the application was received. This is 9 days quicker than the 28-day standard and 6 days quicker than in 2023-24.

• The program is managed through a National Operating Model that ensures workload is managed effectively and efficiently to put clients into pay as quickly as possible.

• Occasionally, processing may take longer than 28 days, especially during peak periods or for the most complex files. For claims not completed within 28 days, the average processing time is between 29 and 35 days. In 2025-26, as of April 30, 2025, the average number of days it took for a client to receive their first Employment Insurance benefit payment was 17 days, the same as in 2024-25.