Today is the first day that you can apply for Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). This benefit was announced recently as a replacement for Employment Insurance (EI) for people who have stopped working because of COVID-19.
CERB is $500 per week for up to 16 weeks. Please note, that is not “up to” $500. It’s a straight $2,000 per month for four months. Will it last longer than that if it needs to? No one can answer that right now.
EI and CERB
CERB was not available before today. It’s relatively amazing the application process is up and running already, but before today, people who had stopped working were being encouraged to apply for EI, and millions of Canadians did so.