CT PAID LEAVE BENEFITS CALCULATED ON ROLLING, NOT CALENDAR, BASIS

Workers with serious health condition in 2024 who need leave in 2025 may need to reapply

Hartford CT — The Connecticut Paid Leave Authority reminded Connecticut residents that individuals who had a paid leave claim in 2024 and expect to have another in 2025 may need to reapply. To be eligible for paid leave benefits, workers must show minimum earnings of $2,325 in the highest quarter of the first four of the five most recently completed quarters and must either be currently employed by a covered employer or had been employed by a covered employer in the 12 weeks immediately preceding the leave, or must be a sole proprietor who has opted into the program. Benefits are not calculated on a calendar basis but rather a rolling basis. Therefore, for a worker with a serious health condition receiving 12 weeks of benefits over the period of a year, the worker may need to reapply if they still have that condition the following year.

“We strive to make the application process simple and straightforward. One useful tool that helps claimants understand how much of their benefit entitlement is still available is the Document Dashboard, which is found in the online claim portal,” said CT Paid Leave CEO Erin Choquette. “The dashboard shows how much time has been approved of the allotted 12 weeks, as well as what time is pending and what remains to be used. “

CT Paid Leave uses the “rolling” or “look back method” for calculating the 12-month period. With this method, each time an employee receives benefits, the remaining benefit entitlement would be the balance of the 12 weeks which has not been used during the immediately preceding 12 months. For example, Lee requests two weeks of CT Paid Leave benefits to begin on February 1, 2025. The Authority looks back 12 months (from Feb.1, 2025 back to Feb. 2, 2024) and sees that Lee had received one week of benefits beginning March 1, 2023, seven weeks beginning May 15, 2023, and three weeks beginning November 1, 2023. Thus, Lee has received 11 weeks of benefits in the 12-month period and only has one week of benefits available. After Lee takes the one week in February 2025, they can next receive one week of benefits as soon as the week of March 1, 2025 and will be able to receive additional days in May as the days of their previous usage “roll off” the claim year (assuming they have a qualifying reason and meet the eligibility requirements). In the event a worker experiences a serious health condition resulting in incapacitation that occurs during a pregnancy, they may qualify for an additional two (2) weeks of benefits from CT Paid Leave.

For more information about CT Paid Leave and how to apply, please visit www.ctpaidleave.org.