High demand results in delays for Washington’s paid family leave program

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The high number of people applying for Washington state’s new paid family leave law is causing delays, with weekly benefits taking up to 10 weeks to process.

Under the law, eligible workers receive 12 weeks paid time off for the birth or adoption of a child, or for a serious medical condition of the worker or the worker’s family member, or 16 weeks for a combination of both. An additional two weeks may be used if there is a serious health condition with a pregnancy.

Weekly benefits under the new law are calculated based on a percentage of the employee’s wages and the state’s weekly average wage – which is now $1,255 through the weekly amount paid out is capped at $1,000. The Washington Employment Security Department says more than 30,000 people have applied for the program in the first six weeks since the program went live last month – more than triple the amount that was projected.

Officials first started warning of delays at the end of January, saying that applications could take up to a month. But department officials say the increase in demand has bumped the potential wait time to 10 weeks.

The agency is adding staff and looking to simplify processing to deal with the high volume of applications. Applicants are also encouraged to not apply until their event has occurred, and to check their status online, making sure they have gone through the application checklist to ease the application process.

Applicants will get retroactive payments back to when their leave started, not from when their application is processed.  (AP)

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