The abbreviations/definitions shown in this policy are used in the Employment Insurance (EI) Assignment of Benefits (AoB) process. These terms are also used in the:

• WebAoBLink Manual,
• WebAoBLink Web Form Guide, and
• INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit manual form
  
  

Assignment of Benefits (AoB)
AoB is the process to direct a portion of an EI claimant’s benefits to the Province when both EI and Income Support (IS) benefits have been paid, or will be paid, for the same period.

AoB Balance
The AoB Balance is a dual payment amount that cannot be recovered immediately from EI.

An AoB balance occurs when either or both of these conditions are met:

• When the AoB request for the same time period is received after EI benefits have already been issued to the claimant.
• If the dual payment is greater than the amount recovered.

AoB balances are calculated and monitored by the Insurance Payment Operational Centre (IPOC) with the federal government.

AoB Period
The AoB period is the period beginning with the first week of benefit assignment and ending with the last week of the assignment as indicated on the INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form. Terms Start Week and Last Week are used on the INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form to identify the AoB Period.

It is essential that the dates on the INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form are correct.

• The date of the Start Week and Effective Date must always match the first Sunday after the application or reopen date.
• The client’s Signature Date and Date Payment client’s signature cannot be after the Date Payment Issued. The client must sign the printed complete WebAoBlink form or the completed manual INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form on or before the date the IS payment is made.
• The Date Payment Issued is the date the IS benefit is released.

AOB – Assignment of Benefits
The process to direct a portion of an EI claimant’s benefits to the Province when both EI and Income Support (IS) benefits have been paid, or will be paid, for the same period.

AOB Balance
A dual payment amount that cannot be recovered immediately.

An AOB balance occurs:

• When the AOB request for the same time period is received after EI benefits have already been issued to the claimant.
• If the dual payment is greater than the amount recovered.

AOB balances are calculated and monitored by the Insurance Payment Operational Centre (IPOC) with the federal government.

AOB Period
The period beginning with the first week of assignment and ending with the last week of the assignment as indicated on the INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form. Terms Start Week and Last Week are used on the INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form to identify the AOB Period.

It is essential that the dates on the INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form are correct.

• The date of the Start Week and Effective Date must always match the first Sunday after the application or reopen date.
• The client’s Signature Date and Date Payment Issued can match but the client’s signature cannot be after the Date Payment Issued. The client must sign the INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form on or before the date the IS payment is made.
• The Date Payment Issued is the date the IS benefit is released.

AOB Recovery
The AoB Recovery is the amount of EI benefits reimbursed to the Province as a result of an AoB request.

AOB Request
An AoB request is made by a worker to assign EI benefits for specific weeks as stated on an INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form.

Dual Payment Amount
The dual payment amount is the amount duplicated by IS and EI deemed to have been paid for the same week. The dual payment amount is the gross EI weekly benefit or the IS Weekly Amount. This is the amount, which can be recovered. Dual payments are calculated by IPOC and become an AoB balance. The balance is recovered from a person’s future EI benefits.

Example 1
EI weekly	$400
IS Weekly Amount	$200
Dual payment	$200

 

Example 2
EI weekly benefit	$150
IS Weekly Amount	$200
Dual payment	$150

Insurance Payment Operational Centre - IPOC
EI claimants’ reports are processed and EI payments are issued at IPOC. The AoB request is also processed at IPOC.

Minimum (Weekly) Living Allowance (MLA)
The Minimum Living Allowance (MLA) is calculated and determined by the IS program. The MLA is the minimum amount of money paid to the client by EI so they can meet their financial needs when they are no longer receiving IS. This amount is used by the EI Benefit Pay System (BPS) in the recovery calculation from subsequent EI benefits. Any EI funds over the MLA are directed to repay the duplicated IS funds that were issued. Used properly, the MLA:

• Minimizes hardship for a client by ensuring a minimum amount of EI benefits remain to meet their basic needs.
• Eliminates the client needing to return for additional IS benefits.
• Allows for some recovery of the dual payments that the client has received.
• Extends the recovery of the duplicated/dual payment over a reasonable period of time.

Any EI benefit over the MLA is applied to the dual payment amount. Any further EI remaining after repaying the dual amount is directed to the client.

The MLA is determined by:

1. Adding Need Codes 11XX to 17XX (excluding medical or contract payments).
   Note
   The MLA must be calculated by using a full month’s benefits.
   
2. Adding an additional 25% to the Need Code Total from step 1 (for unforeseen expenses and average medical costs)
   
3. Dividing the total by the number of Sunday’s in the full month; usually 4 or 5 for a full month.

Example 1
Need Codes 11XX to 17XX for February	=	$1,000
Add 25%	+	250
		1,250
Divide by 4	÷	4
MLA	=	$313

Example 2
Need Codes 11XX to 17XX for February	=	$1,000
Add 25%	+	250
		1,250
Divide by 5	÷	5
MLA	=	$250

The EI system does not respond to cents so for the clients benefit, the worker needs to round up to the nearest dollar.

The MLA must be included on each INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form submitted to IPOC.

Reason Codes
Codes that appear on the SM 3041 Assignment of Benefit report which advises the office why an assignment for a particular client was not accepted. 

Code Description

01     No record of claim 
02     Earnings declared
03     Benefit period not established (BPNE)
04     Prior to the benefit period commencement (BPC)
05     Beyond 8 week limitation
06     Disqualified
07     Disentitled
08     EI week not processed
09     Waiting period (WP)
10     Found work (FW)
11     Transferred out of region
12     BF until first AOB cleared

Recovery Limitation
Each Assignment of Benefit has a 52-week recovery limitation. The recovery limitation is calculated as the AOB start date plus 51 weeks. After that date the AOB balance is written off.

Total Amount Paid
The “total amount paid” refers to the actual amount of IS paid to the client for the AoB period before any recovery deductions. This is different from the amount used to establish the MLA and excludes:

• Any benefits that will be paid back to the department through an EMP 0976B Repayment Agreement including:
  • 1807 - Utility Arrears
  • 1817 - Utility Connection
  • 1820 - Utility Deposit
  • 1829 - Utility Reconnection
  • 1831 - Day Care Deposit (when issued by repayment)
  • 1845 - Emergency Repairs to Household Appliance
  • 1846 - Emergency Household Repairs
  • 1847 - Other Emergency Issue
  • 1852 - Emergency Eviction
  • 1867 - Day Care Registration (when issued by repayment
• Medical or contract payments
• All benefits related to Escaping Abuse including:
  
  • 1407 - Personal Benefit - Family Violence Shelter
  • 1732 - Personal Benefit - Telephone and Transportation - Leaving Abusive Situation
  • 1801 - Damage Deposit
  • 1849 - Escaping Abuse Benefit
  • 1848 - Emergency Shelter - Abuse Situation
  • 1844 - Emergency Transportation
  • 1865 - Relocation Allowance 

WebAOBLink  
The WebAoBLink provides internet website access to EI client data and allows staff to complete the INS 3113 Web Form. Access to WebAoBLink is provided to designated Provincial staff only.

Workers can make a request to the designated WebAOBLink staff in their office to print a WebAOBLink Query. Further information regarding WebAOBLink can be obtained through the WebAoBLink User Guides.

Weekly Amount
The Total Amount Paid is broken down into weekly increments used on the INS 3113 Assignment of Benefit form.

The AoB request must be in weekly increments as Subsection 34(2) of the Employment Insurance Act (Canada) requires a weekly comparison of EI and IS before an assignment can be deducted from a claimant’s EI benefit.

The IS Weekly Amount is calculated by dividing the Total Amount Paid by the number of Sundays in the benefit period.

The EI system does not respond to non-whole dollar amounts. Workers will need to do the following, if the weekly rate calculation does not divide in to whole dollar amounts.

• Round down the amount for all but the last week.
• To find the last week value
  • Add up the rounded weeks,
  • Subtract the total of the rounded IS weekly rates from the total IS amount for the month.
• This will then give you the IS weekly rate for the final week.
• Calculation Tip
  The Weekly Amounts (when added together) must be equal the Total Amount Paid for the benefit period, never more.
  
  Example for calculating weeks
  If the applicant applies for IS on the 12th of July 2006 and you are backdating to the beginning of July and opening the file effective July 1, divide the Total Amount Paid by 5 (number of Sundays in the benefit period from July 1-July 31 2006) to get the weekly amount.
  
  
  If the file wasn’t backdated and all benefits were prorated from July 12th the Total Amount Paid would be divided by 3 (number of Sundays in the benefit period from July 12-July 31, 2006) to get the weekly amount.
  
  
  Example calculation with rounding:
  
  Step 1:   Determine the Weekly amount for all but the last week
  (total amount paid) ÷ (no of Sundays in the month) = weekly amount
  $669 ÷ 5 = $133.80
  
  

  Step 2:   If a decimal amount, round down to the nearest whole dollar.
  $133.80 -> $133.00
  
  

  Step 3:   Determine the last weekly amount.
  (total amount paid) - [(no of Sundays in the month - 1) x (weekly
  amount for all but the last week)]
  $669.00 - (4 x $133.00) = $137.00