A lot of you have been asked to support the summer learning program offered by DCDSB and we have been inundated with questions. Here is the information that Service Canada has provided.
Anyone applying for Employment Insurance after March 15th, CRA will automatically flip you into the CERB program. You still must apply for EI and continue to report earnings if any. CERB is $2000/month and you will be paid $1000 bi-weekly. There will be no wait time effective the day you apply but it may take up to 20 days depending on the number of people applying.
Once we go into the CERB program it is important that at some point to follow up to make sure that you are in CERB. You can do this through you CRA account or call Service Canada.
Allowable Earnings while on CERB:
If you are in CERB, You are allowed to earn up to a $1000 without CERB deducting it. Anything that is $1000 and up, they will deduct it from your CERB pay out. You must be aware that CERB doesn’t take your taxes off so you so you must plan for setting aside money to pay them next tax year. This is based on your annual income so you will need to do the math to figure out what your interest tax right rate is based on your annual income.
Some of you have expressed an interest in support the summer learning program. Keep in mind that you will have to report any earnings when your file your EI reports. One other issue is that if you make more based on summer earnings that your annual income will increase so you will have to determine how much to set aside for next year’s tax filing.
We have been told that EA’s will receive $31.25 an hour so you will have to figure out the hours you want to work in order to keep your earnings below $1000 so that you don’t have it deducted from CERB. There are 2 Three week Summer Learning programs.
- July 6thto July 24th
- August 4thto August 21
- Face-to-face Transition near the end of August
Therefore you must do the math and figure out based on the hourly rate how much you are willing to work so you won’t be penalized through CERB deduction.
If we are still laid off and not back to school in the Fall , (and I don’t have an answer for that as it is up to the ministry), CERB continues until October 3rd. After that, we will go back in EI and our claims will go back from October 2020 back to 2019.
Again! Please be aware that you exceed $1000 or more that it will impact the amount you receive from CERB. All monies must be claimed regardless of when you receive your payment.
I personally want to thank Kristi Norris for spending 2 .5hours researching these answers with Service Canada so that we could share them with all of you!
Maureen Cope – Chairperson of DCDSB Educational Assistants
