Employment Insurance Act

Marginal note:Benefits payable to persons who qualify

• 7 (1) Unemployment benefits are payable as provided in this Part to an insured person who qualifies to receive them.

• Marginal note:Qualification requirement

  (2) An insured person, other than a new entrant or a re-entrant to the labour force, qualifies if the person

  • (a) has had an interruption of earnings from employment; and

  • (b) has had during their qualifying period at least the number of hours of insurable employment set out in the following table in relation to the regional rate of unemployment that applies to the person.

  Regional Rate of Unemployment	Required Number of Hours of Insurable Employment in Qualifying Period
  6% and under	700
  more than 6% but not more than 7%	665
  more than 7% but not more than 8%	630
  more than 8% but not more than 9%	595
  more than 9% but not more than 10%	560
  more than 10% but not more than 11%	525
  more than 11% but not more than 12%	490
  more than 12% but not more than 13%	455
  more than 13%	420

• Marginal note:Qualification requirement for new entrants and re-entrants

  (3) An insured person who is a new entrant or a re-entrant to the labour force qualifies if the person

  • (a) has had an interruption of earnings from employment; and

  • (b) has had 910 or more hours of insurable employment in their qualifying period.

• Marginal note:New entrants and re-entrants

  (4) An insured person is a new entrant or a re-entrant to the labour force if, in the last 52 weeks before their qualifying period, the person has had fewer than 490

  • (a) hours of insurable employment;

  • (b) hours for which benefits have been paid or were payable to the person, calculated on the basis of 35 hours for each week of benefits;

  • (c) prescribed hours that relate to employment in the labour force; or

  • (d) hours comprised of any combination of those hours.

• Marginal note:Exception

  (4.1) An insured person is not a new entrant or a re-entrant if the person has been paid one or more weeks of special benefits referred to in paragraph 12(3)(a) or (b) — or, as a self-employed person under Part VII.1, one or more weeks of benefits referred to in paragraph 152.14(1)(a) or (b) — in the period of 208 weeks preceding the period of 52 weeks before their qualifying period or in other circumstances, as prescribed by regulation, arising in that period of 208 weeks.

• Marginal note:Computation of hours

  (5) For the purposes of subsection (4), an hour that is taken into account under any of paragraphs (4)(a), (b) or (c) may not be taken into account under the other.

• Marginal note:Other benefit rights — Canada-U.S. agreement

  (6) An insured person is not qualified to receive benefits if it is jointly determined that the insured person must first exhaust or end benefit rights under the laws of another jurisdiction, as provided by Article VI of the Agreement Between Canada and the United States Respecting Unemployment Insurance, signed on March 6 and 12, 1942.