Bill Text: NY S01798 | 2023-2024 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Allows certain claimants to be reclassified as permanent total disability or total industrial disability due to extreme hardship; defines extreme hardship.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-0)

Status: (Introduced) 2024-01-03 - REFERRED TO LABOR [S01798 Detail]

Download: New_York-2023-S01798-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________

                                          1798

                               2023-2024 Regular Sessions

                    IN SENATE

                                    January 17, 2023
                                       ___________

        Introduced  by  Sens.  RAMOS, JACKSON -- read twice and ordered printed,
          and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor

        AN ACT to amend the workers' compensation law, in relation  to  allowing
          certain  claimants to be reclassified to permanent total disability or
          total industrial disability due to extreme hardship

          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:

     1    Section  1.   Subdivision 3 of section 35 of the workers' compensation
     2  law, as amended by section 2 of subpart A of part NNN of chapter  59  of
     3  the laws of 2017, is amended to read as follows:
     4    3.  Extreme hardship redetermination. In cases where the loss of wage-
     5  earning capacity is greater than [seventy-five] fifty percent, a  claim-
     6  ant  may  request[, within the year prior to the scheduled exhaustion of
     7  indemnity benefits under paragraph w of  subdivision  three  of  section
     8  fifteen  of  this  article,]  that  the board reclassify the claimant to
     9  permanent total disability or total industrial disability due to factors
    10  reflecting extreme hardship.  For  the  purposes  of  this  subdivision,
    11  "extreme  hardship"  shall  mean:  (a)  the injured worker's income from
    12  social security disability benefits and disability pension, if  applica-
    13  ble,  would be less than fifty percent of his or her average weekly wage
    14  upon termination of  permanent  partial  disability  benefits;  (b)  the
    15  injured  worker  will  be unable to meet expenses for himself or herself
    16  and any dependents upon  termination  of  permanent  partial  disability
    17  benefits;  (c)  additional  medical,  functional,  or vocational factors
    18  arising subsequent to the classification of permanent partial disability
    19  have further eroded the injured worker's wage earning capacity;  or  (d)
    20  the  injured  worker's  income would be below the federal poverty guide-
    21  lines upon termination of permanent partial disability benefits.
    22    § 2.  This act shall take effect immediately.

         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD01487-01-3