Now is the time to reform EI

re: emerging and relevant issues
Does CPJ have any thought on what is happening in the middle east this Christmas holiday or does it just deal with issues within Canada?

My husband's workplace was destroyed in a fire in early November. He applied for EI the very next day. We didn't receive our first payment until over 2 months later. We have a nine month old baby to take care of, so we called and appealed to Service Canada but they were of no help. Luckily I am on Maternity Leave still so I am receiving a small amount of money, but not nearly enough to cover our expenses. I can't imagine how a single person living alone would survive in this situation. I'm ashamed of our Government's lack of sympathy.

Just to let you know about my situation. I was laid off due to my company moving to another province on Sept 29 2008. Granted a got a severance package. but the way our gvt taxes the package I will not receive any EI until mid to late feb 2009.. They are taking weeks of payments from the severance which THEY TAXED as income..although my severance with taxes took me till Dec 2008 I still have this "make believe money that they took as tax"...first of all when you get a severance the EI should take in consideration the NET AMOUNT and not the GROSS AMOUNT as they took over 30% of the earning in taxes..but I still have to wait 5 MONTHS when really that severance money was 3 MONTHS salary ( once the tax were paid) How can you explain the amount of money I made working last me 3 months and now I can survive paying my mortage, bills and food on a supposed 5 MONTHS severance???... on top of it that 2 weeks waiting period is a slap in the face..I never collected EI and I am so frustrated about the process.. I had to dig into my RRSP to pay my bills ( which is TAX again)... where does this milking stops???? I even went to a second carrier assessement that was a JOKE too... basically if you do qualify for the program you have to make sure that it is at the right time..example. I wanted to go back to college in Sept 2009..my EI would run out in November 2009. well guess what TOO BAD.. then I would have to get a line of credit ( which is hard due to the fact that I would be a full time student )... sell my house...or go for a loan.. I just dont get it....this is a scam ...all of it...feel good programs for the gvt to pat themselves!..these are not made for hard working MIDDLE CLASS taxpayers...The ones who are paying with taxes all these lovely goodies..

I was lad off from my job at the end of january 2009. I waited the 2 weeks to see if i would get my record of employment and i did not! My mom called the government and said that I could still go online and file for EI. So i did that. I was late sending in my records of employments because i was waiting for people to send them to me after i requested more than once for them. I finally got one of my record of employments at the beginning of march 2009 Which i should have gotten in September 2008! (That business closed and the government said that they had until the end of february to give me my record of employment). I only just got my record of employment from the place where i was laid off in January 2009! Only took them about 2 months to get it to me. In january i made less than $500 and of that $500 almost half of it went to my student loan payment! The government is now paying the interest on my student loan so i don't need to pay that. My mom has had to work overtime just to get some extra money to give to me so i can at least keep my cellphone. For people that live pay cheque to pay cheque we can't wait 6weeks for EI to kick in! I've waited my 6 weeks and i still have no money! I have creditors calling every day! i keep telling them that they will get money when i get money, but the thing is they need to know when that will be. I have absoutley no money!! i have to borrow money from family or even friends just to get gas money so i can hand out resumes! I just did my report on the weekend for EI and i was thinking i would get money this week well that never happened. Now its looking like i won't get anything until april! How do they expect anyone to get through life without any income for 2 months or more! I was a waitress so i only made $7.60/hour i was only making like $500 every 2 weeks! i was living pay cheque to pay cheque but i have come to realize that i need something better than a waitress job! And to top it all off the place where i was laid off in January 2009 is now hiring! Can they do that? Shouldn't i get my job back before they hire more people? The longer this goes on the more stressed i get! They need to make it so that from the moment you start an application for EI that ypou get a little something even if its only $50 every 2 weeks! A little is better than nothing!

Ya this all is pretty sad...I'm going on waiting almost 5 months for my claim to be completed here in st. catharines. I've been to my local service canada center twice, called 13 times, and have had 4 call backs sent on my report. These people have no consideration for the fact that I have lost everything I've worked to get over these last 5 years of working everyday, I've spent my entire savings account and lost my apartment, car, phone, ... It's just a nightmare and these people could give 2 shits about us. BYE