Employment insurance over the summer, and what it does to your mortgage

Daily occasional teachers can often claim employment insurance over the summer under the casual and substitute teaching provision. Claiming it does not disqualify you from a mortgage. Lenders use a two-year average of your teaching income, and EI benefits are generally not counted as qualifying income, so the important thing is your teaching earnings rather than the claim itself.

Occasional teachers are told two contradictory things: that claiming EI over the summer is a normal part of the job, and that it will wreck a mortgage application. The first is broadly true. The second is not.

The rule is narrower than most people think

Teachers are generally barred from claiming regular EI benefits during a non-teaching period. There is a carve-out for those employed on a casual or substitute basis, which is what a daily occasional teacher normally is.

A long-term occasional is treated differently. For an LTO the contract has to genuinely end. An assignment that everyone expects will resume in September does not satisfy the test.

This is a benefits question with real consequences if you get it wrong. Confirm your own situation with Service Canada rather than relying on staffroom advice.

What a lender does with it

A lender assessing an occasional teacher is looking at your two-year average teaching income, taken from your T4s and Notices of Assessment. Regular EI benefits are generally not treated as qualifying income for a mortgage. The practical effect is that a summer EI claim neither helps nor hurts your qualifying number.

It also means the unpaid summer is only counted once. It is already inside the two-year average. Nobody deducts it a second time.

Where it can genuinely matter

• Deposits a lender cannot explain. EI payments landing in your account are fine, but be ready to identify them during down payment verification.
• A repayment owing to Service Canada. That is a debt, and debts affect your ratios.
• A year where EI made up an unusually large share of your income, which can pull your two-year teaching average down. That is about the teaching earnings, not the claim.

What actually strengthens an occasional teacher's file

• Two full years of T4s and Notices of Assessment, which is what most lenders want to see.
• A trend that is flat or rising rather than falling.
• A signed go-forward LTO assignment if you have one.
• Time on the board's occasional roster, which speaks to continuity.

Sources and dates

Figures in this guide come from the sources below. Each entry shows the date the source states, or the date it was read when the source gives none. After the review date, treat any number as a starting point and check the source.

• Employment Insurance Digest of Benefit Entitlement Principles, chapter 14 section 3, disentitlement and relief conditions for teachers (accessed 2026-08-26)
• Employment Insurance Digest of Benefit Entitlement Principles, chapter 14 section 2, teaching and non-teaching period defined (accessed 2026-08-26)

Common questions