Paid family leave: eligibility: care for designated persons.

Plain English Breakdown

The official source material does not provide specific details on enforcement mechanisms or potential impacts on existing laws, leaving some uncertainties.

Paid Family Leave: Expanding Care for Designated Persons

The law expands the paid family leave program to include care for designated persons, who are individuals related by blood or with a close relationship equivalent to family.

What This Bill Does

• Expands eligibility for paid family leave benefits to cover people taking time off work to care for a seriously ill designated person starting July 1, 2028.
• Defines 'designated person' as someone related by blood or with an association similar to a family relationship.
• Requires individuals requesting benefits for the first time to identify and describe their relationship with the designated person under penalty of perjury.
• Updates definitions of terms like 'family care leave' and 'family member' to include designated persons.

Who It Names or Affects

• Workers who take time off work to care for a seriously ill person related by blood or with an equivalent family relationship.
• Employers whose employees may now qualify for extended paid leave benefits.

Terms To Know

Designated Person

An individual who is either related by blood to the worker or has a close association similar to a family relationship, allowing them to receive care under the expanded paid family leave program.

Family Care Leave

Time off work for workers to provide care for a seriously ill family member or designated person.

Limits and Unknowns

• The bill does not specify who will be responsible for enforcing the new requirements.
• It is unclear how this expansion might affect existing unemployment compensation disability law and fund allocations.

Official Summary Text

SB 590, Durazo.
Paid family leave: eligibility: care for designated persons.
Existing unemployment compensation disability law requires workers to pay contribution rates based on, among other things, wages received in employment and benefit disbursement, for payment into the Unemployment Compensation Disability Fund, a special fund in the State Treasury. That fund is continuously appropriated for the purpose of providing disability benefits and making payment of expenses in administering those provisions.
Existing law establishes, within the above state disability insurance program, a family temporary disability insurance program, also known as the paid family leave program, for the provision of wage replacement benefits for up to 8 weeks to workers who take time off work for prescribed purposes, including to care for a seriously ill family member. Existing law defines terms for its purposes, including family care
leave and family member.
This bill would, commencing July 1, 2028, expand eligibility for benefits under the paid family leave program to include individuals who take time off work to care for a seriously ill designated person. The bill would define designated person to mean any care recipient related by blood or whose association with the individual is the equivalent of a
family relationship, and would make conforming changes to the definitions of the terms family care leave and family member.
This bill would require an individual that requests for the first time family temporary disability insurance benefits to care for a designated person to identify the designated person and, under penalty of perjury, attest to how the individual is related by blood to the designated person, or how the individual’s association with the designated person is the equivalent of a family relationship. By expanding the scope of the crime of perjury, the
bill would impose a state-mandated local program.
By authorizing expenditures from the continuously appropriated fund for these expanded purposes, this bill would make an appropriation.
The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

Current Bill Text

Download Bill PDF