To help workers balance their professional and family responsibilities, parents raising children who are insured under employment insurance can now apply for both parental leave allowance and continued insurance participation during parental leave in a single step. This reduces families’ financial burden and ensures uninterrupted insurance coverage during the parental leave period.
The Bureau of Labor Insurance (BLI) announced that, to simplify administrative procedures, the application forms for parental leave allowance and continued insurance participation have been combined. Insured persons can now complete the Parental Leave Allowance Application Form and Benefits Receipt and Continued Insurance Participation Application Form to apply for both simultaneously. In addition to paper applications, the BLI’s e-Service System enables insured persons or entrusted insured units to apply for both the allowance and continued insurance participation online. These multiple application channels offer a simple, fast, and convenient way to handle both the allowance and continued insurance participation in one go.
The BLI further explained that, to provide more timely notifications to insured persons claiming the parental leave allowance, initial parental leave allowance approvals have been changed from written approval notices to text message notifications from November 4, 2024. If a mobile phone number is provided during the application process, the BLI will send a text message on the next business day following the issuance of the allowance. Applicants who wish to check the payment amount can do so via the BLI’s e-Service System or confirm the deposit in the designated financial institution account five business days after receiving the text message. Additionally, applicants are reminded that the text message notifications for initial parental leave allowance approvals will be sent via the government’s dedicated short-code SMS platform “111” to ensure the security of information transmission.
Applications for parental leave allowances, continued insurance participation, progress tracking, and reissuance of approval notices can all be handled through the BLI’s
e-Service System, which is available 24/7 year-round. This comprehensive e-service saves time and offers convenience, and the public is encouraged to take full advantage of it.