EI, EI ... uh-oh.

February 21, 2010 7:53 PM

I was on EI (Canada), and left the country (said I hadn't). Service Canada found out, what to do ??

I need to fill out a questionnaire explaining why I was gone but said I was available. I had left to visit my (now ex) girlfriend's family with her. Is there anything I can do here short of just explaining why ?

Will I need to repay the benefits I received during my away period, or does it go further than that ? Anyone who has experience with this I would love to hear your thoughts or advice.

Further questions can be sent to: [e-mail].

posted by anonymous to Work & Money (3 answers total)

Not speaking from experience (although I am on EI at the moment), but what will happen is that Service Canada may ask you to pay back benefits for the period while you were out of the country.

You may balk at signing some sort of explanatory statement without having a lawyer taking a look at it first, but you have to factor in the cost of the lawyer versus the cost of what Service Canada may try to claw back. It probably isn't worth it to get a lawyer to help you, although you may wish to talk to one of the counsellors at Service Canada and get their advice.

What you need to do is state that you were available and looking for work, even when you were out of the country, and that you had sent resumes to prospective employers prior to departure. If you can back that up with documentation (ie, if you were actually looking for work) it would be great.

Explain that you had planned the trip prior to loosing your job. Once again, if you can corroborate this, it would be great.

But from what I've read online, it seems likely you will be forced to repay benefits from the time you were out of the country.
posted by KokuRyu at 9:54 PM on February 21, 2010

First off, you have committed fraud, and you have been caught. How did they find out? Was there an anonymous tip? Did they track the IP that you filled out your weekly report from? (I know you can't exactly reply, but I am curious)

Tell them that you were confused about the reporting requirements, and you thought that since you were available by telephone (i.e. you or a family member were checking messages in case you got a call) and would have returned home at a moments notice, you thought you were ok.

You will have to repay the benefits from that time period, but it is not likely to go any further than that.
posted by davey_darling at 3:20 PM on February 22, 2010

You will have to repay the benefits and you may also have to work more hours before you are eligible for EI again. (Depending on how severe they consider the offense, something like 1200 or 1250 hours instead of 900. I'm not sure of the exact numbers but I am working on a publication right now that covers this if you really want to know. You can memail me if you do.)
posted by Felicity Rilke at 3:43 PM on February 22, 2010