Benefits - Prepay Pension & Benefits - Leave/Time Off
Thanks for your email - a couple of things to think about:
This then gets sent to Payroll and triggers them to send to you an outline of what benefits may continue and how much it may cost you to keep them active while away. You would be asked to prepay for them prior to your leave starting.
The amount for each person will differ, but you can estimate this with a review of a recent pay stub and see what benefits YOU are currently paying for. I would guess it is probably only Long Term Disability premiums, plus if you took any optional coverages as well, like critical illness or extra optional life cover. You will note that SAIT is paying for all your other benefits. Multiply those by however many pay periods you think you will be away, eg, 6 months will be 12. That would give you a good idea.
If you contribute to one of the group savings plans, those contributions will also stop - but you can always continue to make payments direct to Canada Life through your bank - same way you might pay a bill.
There is also LAPP too. Pension contributions do stop while you are away from work, and there is no mechanism to pre-pay those or contribute while you are not earning. So at the end of each calendar year, we report if there was a gap in your service, and then in the Spring you will receive a costing from LAPP, offering you the opportunity to buy back that gap if you wish. The pension is only ever based on your total amount of service and your highest five consecutive years of earnings, so you will see that the more service you have, the more value your pension is at retirement. We would usually recommend completing a buy back if you can afford it!
Hope that helps. :)