Federal form
EI compassionate care benefit — medical certificate
Employment Insurance compassionate care benefits are for a person who is away from work to care for a family member who is gravely ill with a significant risk of death. The medical certificate is about the ill person, not the claimant’s job. It is not EI sickness, not CPP terminal-illness attestation (ISP-2530B), and not a palliative-care funding form. You certify the clinical situation Service Canada asks for on the current certificate.
Who the certificate is about
You are the practitioner for the gravely ill person. The EI claimant is the caregiver. Do not complete this certificate as if the caregiver were your patient unless they are. Service Canada decides weeks and family eligibility. You are asked whether the ill person is gravely ill with a significant risk of death, and related elements on the current form.
Use Service Canada’s current compassionate care medical certificate, or clinic letterhead if the instructions still allow it and every required element is there. Download from canada.ca. Do not reuse an EI sickness certificate and change the title.
Significant risk of death is not a date certain
You are not being asked to name the hour of death. You are being asked whether the illness is grave and whether there is a significant risk of death. If you cannot support that, do not stretch a chronic stable condition into compassionate care. CPP terminal-illness attestation (six-month prognosis) is a different form with a different test.
Who may sign
A medical doctor or another practitioner Service Canada lists on the current certificate who is treating the ill person. If you are covering a colleague’s palliative patient, say how you know the file. Do not sign from a family story with no assessment.
How to complete it
- Ill person’s identifiers as Service Canada will match them.
- The grave illness in clinical terms.
- That there is a significant risk of death, if that is true and you can support it.
- Period you are describing, if the form asks.
- Your profession, contact, and signature.
- Keep a copy. The caregiver files with Service Canada. Service Canada does not pay your fee.
If the person is dying but the claimant wanted EI sickness for their own depression, that is a different certificate about a different patient. Complete one form per question.
Worked example (fictional)
Compassionate care — metastatic pancreatic cancer
Fictional 68-year-old ill person. Do not copy into a real certificate.
Ill person: pancreatic adenocarcinoma with liver metastases, diagnosed 2026-06, now on best supportive care after stopping chemo 2026-08-10. ECOG 3, cachexia, recurrent biliary obstruction. I consider this a grave illness with a significant risk of death. I am the attending FP/palliative clinician. This is not ISP-2530B (no six-month wording forced if the form does not ask). This is not EI sickness for the daughter who is claiming. Signed 2026-08-28. Copy in the ill person’s chart.
Why Service Canada asks again
- Certificate about the caregiver instead of the ill person.
- A stable chronic disease without significant risk of death.
- Using an EI sickness form.
- Unsigned, or no practitioner identifiers.
- Conflicting dates with the application.
Draft the compassionate care certificate from the visit
In Scribeberry, open Forms, search for EI compassionate care medical, or upload Service Canada’s current PDF. Generate from the encounter and your notes, then review every field before you sign. Scribeberry does not pre-map this form. You still review and sign. Scribeberry does not file with Service Canada.
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as EI sickness?
No. Sickness is about the claimant’s own inability to work. Compassionate care is about caring for a gravely ill family member. Different certificate, different patient.
Is this CPP terminal illness (ISP-2530B)?
No. ISP-2530B is a six-month prognosis path for CPP Disability. Compassionate care uses Service Canada’s EI certificate and a “significant risk of death” framing. Do not mix them.
What if I cannot support a risk of death?
Do not sign that element. The family may still need other leave or benefits. Stretching a stable illness is how the next certificate is distrusted.
Does Scribeberry submit this to Service Canada?
No. Scribeberry helps you complete the PDF. The caregiver files it. Keep a copy in the ill person’s chart.
Forms
