Personal Leave of Absence

Continuing your Benefits

If you’re planning to take a personal leave of absence, you can choose to continue receiving all or some of your benefit coverage for the duration of your leave. Depending on your arrangement with your employer, you may be responsible for premium payments while you’re on leave. Your employer will be able to tell you who will be paying your benefit premiums during this time.

If you decide not to continue your benefits, they will be inactive during your leave, and will be reinstated when you go back to work. Any gap in your coverage, however, may cause future EDB claims to be denied if you are unable to work due to illness or injury during the first 26 weeks after you return to work.

See Managing your Benefits During a Personal or Maternity Leave for details.

Retiring From a Personal Leave

If you are on a personal leave of absence and decide to retire or take Early Retirement benefits directly from your leave, your benefit coverage will remain the same as when you were on leave. When you retire, you take your current benefits with you, which may be different from the benefit coverage you had while you were working.