The death or disappearance of a child is devastating and can leave parents unable to work. If you are a parent or legal guardian who consider to/or have taken time away from work and suffered a loss of income to cope with the death or disappearance of your child or children, you may be eligible for federal income support. The benefit provides eligible parents with payments of $500 per week, paid every 2 weeks, for a maximum of 35 weeks over a period of 3 years.

Applicant eligibility

To be eligible, you must:

• be legally responsible for the child or children involved in the incident

• have earned at least $5,000 in the previous calendar year, or in the 52 weeks prior to the incident

• be on leave from employment or only working up to 50 % of your regular work week, up to a maximum of 20 hours per week

• have a valid social insurance number (SIN)

• not be receiving any type of Employment Insurance benefits or Quebec Parental Insurance Plan benefits, and

• not have been charged with committing a probable Criminal Code offence that led to the death or disappearance of the child

Incident eligibility

The incident must meet the following criteria:

• the child is deceased or missing as a result of a probable Criminal Code offence that occurred in Canada on or after September 30, 2018

• the child was under 25 years of age at the time of the incident

• in the case of a missing child, the child has been missing for over a week