FAQ - Employment Insurance

The full process for applying for apprentice funding is as follows:
First, the apprentice must apply in the Client Portal and to do this they will need their ITA number, their SIN Number, their school start and end dates, and the number of dollars/kilometers for which they want funding for travel, commuting, dependent care, etc. The Client Portal will begin by assisting the apprentice with creating a BCEID if they do not already have one or if they have forgotten their last BCEID login information. Within 72 hours of submitting their application, they will receive an email at the email address they provided advising them to log into their BCeID account to receive a notification containing the EI Reference Code and instructions on how to use the code to apply for regular EI with Service Canada
Once they have completed the BCeID, Apprentice Online Portal, and EI application they are done with the application process.

Choosing the Public Computer option will force the computer to log off after 5 minutes of inactivity. Choosing Private Computer option will enable the computer to stay on for a longer period of inactivity before forcing the device to log off. Please remember that one should never leave their computer unattended in a public place while entering personal information into any application.

The Client Portal is the application for Part II EI benefits (secondary benefits including travel, living away from home, commuting, disability, and dependent care benefits). The portal also initiates the Section 25 approval that apprentices need to collect EI while attending school and generates the EI Reference Code that apprentices must provide on their Regular EI application with Service Canada. The EI application completed with Service Canada is the application for Part I (loss of wages) EI, which is totally separate from the Part II benefits.

All apprentices are to complete their application on the AOP no later than the end of the first day of class. Applications in the Client Portal can only be backdated 28 days; if an application date is after the first 28 days of class, the apprentice will not be able to apply for benefits. They will have to contact their local Work BC centre to speak with someone about their options.

The application will continue in this status until approximately one week after the apprentice has started school. At the one-week mark, the school will fax class lists which will be used to mark applications in the portal as “Attending” to move applications on to the next stage for processing, which is the Integrated Case Management System used by the province and Work BC.

This status refers to the fact that this application has now generated an accompanying Contact/Case in the Integrated Case Management System and is actually a good thing, not cause for concern.

There are a few reasons why this could happen. If this is the situation you are faced with, contact Work BC to see what your next steps are.

GT Hiring Solutions will attempt to pay the client through direct deposit and if this does not work, the benefit cheque will be mailed to the student’s permanent address.

It will likely take 4-8 weeks from your start date to receive payments for Part II benefits; this is based on the average processing time that Service Canada posts on their website. We are dependent on Service Canada to provide information on whether an apprentice is eligible for funding and how much. The regular EI benefits paid directly by Service Canada may initiate more quickly.

There are two reasons why an apprentice might receive less than they had expected for their commuting costs; if the amount is about one tenth of what they expected, most likely they entered their one-day/one-way kilometers travelled into the Commuting section of the application instead of the required weekly total of kilometers travelled.

If the amount is random, likely they entered their one-way/one-day kilometers into the Travel section instead of completing the Commuting section.

***In the Client Portal application, “Travel” refers to travelling to the region where an apprentice will attend school at the beginning of the course and then travelling home at the end of the course and is calculated as one day/one-way (i.e. an apprentice normally lives in Prince George but is travelling to Burnaby to attend PVC and will travel home again when finished). “Commuting” refers to daily travel to and from class and requires entering the weekly total of kilometers travelled (i.e. an apprentice lives in Surrey and drives 28 kilometres each way to school for a weekly total of 28 x 2 times per day = 56 then x 5 days per week = 280 total).

The apprentice will be paid their Part II benefits for the period during which they attended class. The Apprentice needs to contact Work BC ASAP so that the funding can be assessed and modified as needed.

If an apprentice doesn’t request benefits on their AOP application, they don’t get any funding. This is not something that can be changed and they are not going to be able to get funding.

This process was developed by the provincial government as part of the new service delivery model for employment services. If you have feedback regarding this process, please contact Enquiry BC at 604-660-2124.