The federal government has yet to confirm whether it will extend the 16-week eligibility period for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit.
with recommendations on how the federal government could continue to financially support Canadians through the economy’s recovery.To help the unemployed who can’t access EI, Ottawa could proceed one of two ways, the report said. The government could extend the CERB with “new phase-out modifications” or expand the EI program by “reforming eligibility criteria to take on the role of the CERB.”
Extending the CERB with tweaks to create work incentives would be a better short-term policy option, said the group. An extended emergency benefit could include an income-tested claw-back or a temporary working bonus for low-wage workers, they said.Alternatively, the government could expand existing income support programs — EI in particular — and adjust the eligibility criteria to include people who are ineligible for CERB.
“The system as it existed prior to the CERB was really built in the 1970s and still runs on 1970s computers,” said David Macdonald, senior economist at the CCPA, a policy research institute based in the national capital.
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