Parental benefits

EI parental benefits are for biological parents, parents who adopt, and others who the law sees as parents.

You can choose to get standard or extended benefits. Think carefully about which choice is best for you. Once the parental benefits start, you cannot change your choice.

Standard benefits

You can get parental benefits for up to 35 weeks. You will get 55% of what you earned before getting EI, up to a maximum amount. The maximum amount you can get changes every year.

For 2026, the maximum amount is $729 a week. For 2025, the maximum amount was $695 a week.

Usually, you cannot continue to get these benefits later than 52 weeks after the week:

• your child is born, or
• your adopted child comes to live with you.

But this period can be longer if your child is in the hospital during that time.

If all the parents have worked enough hours to get EI parental benefits, they can share these benefits. If you share, you can get an extra 5 weeks of benefits. This means all the parents can share a total of 40 weeks of standard benefits.

You can share the 40 weeks any way you like, as long as no one takes more than 35 weeks. For example, the parents could divide the time in equal parts or one parent could take more.

Extended benefits

If you choose extended benefits, you can get parental benefits for up to 61 weeks. You will get 33% of what you earned before getting EI, up to a maximum amount. The maximum amount you can get changes each year.

For 2026, the maximum amount is $437 a week. For 2025, the maximum amount was $417 a week.

Usually, you cannot continue to get these benefits later than 78 weeks after the week:

• your child is born, or
• your adopted child comes to live with you.

78 weeks is about 18 months. But this period can be longer if your child is in the hospital during that time.

If all the parents have worked enough hours to get EI parental benefits, they can share up to 69 weeks of benefits.

You can share them any way you like, as long as no one takes more than 61 weeks. For example, the parents could divide the time in equal parts or one parent could take more.

Waiting period

If none of the parents of your child got maternity benefits, you may have to wait one week before getting EI. This means that you do not get EI benefits for the first week you’re off work.

But if you or another parent already went through the one‑week waiting period before getting maternity benefits, you can usually start receiving parental benefits right away.

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January 2026 Previous page Next page