In terms of what monies on separation is, it's the money that is paid to an employee following separation from their employment. It can include things such as severance pay and accumulated vacation pay, and is paid out to the employee upon their job separation.
Under prepandemic EI rules, those monies paid to a claimant following their job separation were allocated as earnings. That led to payments of EI benefits to a claimant not starting until after their separation monies were exhausted. What that means in the prepandemic context is that in cases in which a claimant began to receive EI benefits before they received a separation payment and the employer did not indicate that on the initial record of employment, an overpayment of EI benefits could result and the claimant would need to return the amount of overpayment. That's what monies on separation is.
To continue with the second question—on what temporary measure on monies on separation was announced in the budget—that measure was a one-year temporary measure implemented as of September 26, 2021. It was to enable workers to receive their monies on separation sooner. Again, it's vacation and separation pay. They could get their EI regular or special benefits as soon as possible and at the same time as having monies on separation. This temporary measure also applied to self-employed workers who had entered into an agreement with the commission to receive special benefits coverage.