Digest of Benefit Entitlement Principles Chapter 17 - Section 1

17.1.0 Introduction

Decision making is a regular part of Employment Insurance claims processing. Some decisions such as determining whether or not a claimant is available for work are completed by a Commission employee. Other decisions arise directly from claimant provided information, such as payment of benefits based on reporting declarations. Sometimes decisions must be reviewed and/or changed. This can have one of three results:

• benefits previously paid may no longer be payable (overpayment);
• benefits previously denied may become payable (underpayment); or
• no change to the claim.

The sections of the Employment Insurance Act (EIA) that allow retroactive review or amendment of a decision may be divided into two categories: one category gives the Commission sole authority, but no obligation, to reconsider a claim retroactively; the other category allows the amendment of a previous decision only if new facts are presented or there was an error as to a material fact.

[ June 2014 ]