Benefit (Public Accounts)
Employment Insurance benefits
Employment and Social Development Canada · Employment Insurance benefits
In fiscal year 2024–25, the federal government paid $24.9 billion in Employment Insurance benefits, up from $23.1 billion in 2023–24. That is $830 per tax filer.
Benefits paid from the Employment Insurance Operating Account. Public Accounts line: Employment insurance, which reconciles to the Employment Insurance benefits line in the budget fiscal tables. 2020-21 includes the EI Emergency Response Benefit.
Headline figures
Fiscal year 2024–25
$24.9B
100.0% of Employment Insurance benefits spending in 2024–25.
Up $1.7B from $23.1B in 2023–24.
Per tax filer uses 29,965,100 tax filers (2023, the latest count published); per person uses a population of 41,162,593 (2024). An allocation of cost, not a tax bill.
Show these figures as a table
| Fiscal year | Spending |
|---|---|
| 2018–19 | $18.9B |
| 2019–20 | $21.8B |
| 2020–21 | $58.4B |
| 2021–22 | $38.9B |
| 2022–23 | $21.8B |
| 2023–24 | $23.1B |
| 2024–25 | $24.9B |
Source and basis
- Consolidated Statement of Revenues and Expenses as per the Public Accounts of Canada, retrieved 2026-10-30. Open Government Licence - Canada.
- Expense line in the audited Public Accounts consolidated statement of revenues and expenses (accrual). It reconciles to the matching line in the budget fiscal tables. These benefits are not appropriated, so they do not appear in departmental program spending.
← All employment insurance benefits spendingHow the figures are calculated