COUNTRY NEWS

Family Helper    ADOPTION NEWS CENTRAL

INFERTILITY   ADOPTION   POST-ADOPTION   FAMILY TREE   Adoption Resource Central    Heart of Adoption Articles to inspire   You can order Family Helper publications		Employment Insurance changes benefit adoptive parents BY ROBIN HILBORN, Family Helper editor
		(June 9, 2000) The federal budget of February 2000 extended the duration of parental leave for all parents, biological and adoptive. An adoptive parent who has been paying EI premiums for the qualifying period is entitled to 35 weeks of parental leave, as do biological parents. The difference is that women who give birth are also entitled to 15 weeks of maternity leave. Adoptive parents get no maternity leave. This is the basis of the charge that women who give birth and women who adopt are treated unequally. Besides extending parental leave, the budget introduced other improvements: -- Parents may work part-time while receiving benefits. They may earn the greater of $50 or 25% of their weekly parental benefits, without a deduction from their benefits. (EI pays 55% of average weekly insurable earnings, to a maximum of $413 a week.) -- The qualifying period drops to 600 hours of work, from 700 hours. -- Parents who share the parental leave will be able to share the two-week waiting period, rather than each serving a separate waiting period. Advocates such as Harriet Fancott, editor of AFABC's Focus on Adoption, (June/July 2000 issue) maintain that the solution to unequal treatment is easy: Create an adoption benefit equal to the maternity benefit. FOR MORE INFO: HRDC/EI in the 2000 budget, www.hrdc-drhc.gc.ca/ei/common/budget2000.shtml MEDIA COVERAGE: Globe and Mail, June 9, 2000 letter by Catherine Clute, re "Quebec plans generous parental leave" article of June 7 ________________________________________ You may reproduce this item with the credit: "Source: Family Helper (www.familyhelper.net)"