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By the time I was ready to get serious about having kids, I hadn?t paid into EI for four years. I was a freelance writer and marketing consultant, lamenting the fact that I wouldn?t get the same cushy mat leave that regular employees get.
But after some Googling, I discovered that self-employed workers do indeed have a mat leave option and hardly anyone knows about it. We can opt-in to Service Canada?s special EI benefits for self-employed workers, which allows us to make the same claims for maternity and parental leave in exchange for paying the same EI premiums that regular employees have deducted from their paycheques.
More and more of us are self-employed today than ever before. The number of self-employed women increased by 15 percent between 2006 and 2016. (The number of self-employed men increased only 6 percent in the same period.) Yet, not many self-employed women are opting in to the special EI benefits they?ve been entitled to since the program began, back in 2010. Only 755 claims across Canada were processed in 2014, for example. Uptake has been slow. Is it because no one knows about it" Or is it because the program isn?t worth it" Well, it depends.
Family planning meets financial planning

While I was ready to get the baby show on the road, there was a catch. In order to be eligible for the EI benefits for self-employed workers, you have to have registered 12 months prior to beginning your mat leave. It?s no secret that it takes at ...