After a little bit of a rocky start, the Connecticut Paid Leave Authority released data Friday that shows claims decisions are being made on average within eight days. That’s two days better than at the start of the program.
The authority has paid out $157 million in benefits through Sept. 2. That’s almost double what it handed out between January when the program opened and June.
More than 63,000 claims have been received. A majority of those or 50% were for serious health conditions, 15% were for pregnancy, 21% for bonding, 11% to care for a family member and 3% were for family violence or military reasons.
Of the decisions made 20,059 claims were denied.
“Connecticut’s paid leave program is funded entirely by the workforce it supports,” CTPL CEO Andrea Barton Reeves said. “We at the CT Paid Leave Authority have a commitment to that workforce to keep them updated on how the program is doing and so plan to issue periodic updates like this one on our performance.”
When it opened in January the Omicron variant was overtaking the state and the new team was expected to handle twice the volume of calls which meant some customers didn’t get the experience they deserved.
That backlog has since been resolved.
But submission of paperwork is still one of the top reasons for delays in processing a claim. Barton Reeves has said they are doing a better job of educating customers on what type of paperwork to expect and how to submit it online.
To apply for paid leave online, workers will first need to create an account with CT.gov. This will provide the applicant with a single identity and will take approximately 10 minutes. The applicant can then submit their claim online.
