Text Box: 7 Text Box: Peter Milliken, M.P. Kingston and The Islands Text Box: Caring for Canadians: The New Compassionate Care Benefit Text Box: Budget 2003 included provisions for the development of a new Employment Insurance (EI) benefit called the Compassionate Care benefit. Compassionate care is a special form of Employment Insurance that provides temporary income support for eligible workers who have obtained the necessary medical certificate and who take leave to provide care for a family member who has a significant risk of death within six months. The program was designed to be flexible and can be shared with other EI-eligible family members. To be eligible for the new benefit, workers must have worked 600 hours and provide a Medical Certificate from an attending doctor indicating that the ill family member has a serious medical condition. The benefit can be paid to support the care of one of the following gravely ill family members: A spouse or common-law partner A parent The spouse or common-law partner of a parent A child A child of the spouse or common-law partner The Compassionate Care benefit is one of the first of its kind in the world, and will serve as a complement to the EI Parental benefit set up in 2000, which allows parents to take up to a full year of leave for a newborn or adopted child.

To find out more information about new EI benefits visit:

www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca