Maternity benefits and studentship

August 10, 2008 11:11 AM

My spouse (S) and I are both grad students. I'll be done in about a year (which is a year earlier than S) and we want to start having kids then. The problem is, since I've been a student and not engaged in insurable employment I don't think I qualify for maternity benefits. Am I understanding this correctly? Questions about Canadian maternity benefits, being a student, and baby timing inside.

I understand that to get maternity benefits from the government I would have had to have worked 600 hours in the past 52 weeks. I work that much, easily, but as a student funded through scholarships, grants and assistanceships - I don't pay into EI. Does this mean that if I got pregnant and gave birth shortly after my Master's ended, I would have an income of zero? I would not qualify at all for any maternity benefits from the government? Could I apply for welfare if my spouse is a Master's student? I suppose it could be possible for me to plan the birth a little later, but no one would want to hire me if I were already pregnant, and delaying it much longer would play havoc with our other plans.

I hope to be done my thesis in April but technically have until August and might need that long, so we were thinking of starting to try so that the earliest we would be due is Sept (meaning, more likely due in Oct/Nov or even later). S will be starting second year of Master's degree in that Sept and then we'd both like to either work or start PhDs the following Sept.

(Asked anonymously because I don't want anyone to know we are planning on getting pregnant.)

posted by anonymous to law & government (4 comments total)

The 600 hours have to be "insurable" hours. Generally if you aren't paying EI on the hours they don't count. Also be aware that if you have _never_ paid into EI before you may be required to have even more hours (up to 910) than the bare minimum in your first job to qualify.

However the best thing to do is give the EI service office a call and enquire (1 800 206-7218).
posted by Mitheral at 11:42 AM on August 10, 2008

You do not qualify for ei benefits as you have no earnings. Welfare may be difficult to obtain as someone who is not a single mother and with an advanced degree and no "work" history. I would suggest getting a job work there for 3 to 6 months then get pregnant. You will be working for the first 8 months of pregnancy (assuming no complications). This means that you will have about a year of earnings letting you qualify for ei.
posted by saradarlin at 12:13 PM on August 10, 2008

Just poked around and found this. It will vary school by school but it might be to your advantage to maintain registered status in the school (e.g. finish your thesis but don't defend it) and take advantage of any maternity benefits your university may provide. Certainly you and your spouse are the intended beneficiaries of such programs so don't be shy about taking advantage of them.
posted by PercussivePaul at 12:48 PM on August 10, 2008

As someone who has had zero mat benefits twice, I recommend you find some sort of insurable employment for 600+ hours. But check with your TA union to see if TAing or RAing counts. You might get benefits that way.

It doesn't take many hours per week to climb to 600 hours during a pregnancy. But you're only going to get 55% of your average monthly earnings (to a max and I might have % wrong). So it's better to go get a good job ($2500/mo) right before you get pregnant.
posted by acoutu at 2:37 PM on August 10, 2008