OLYMPIA, Wash. — A high volume of applicants to Washington state's new paid family leave law is creating a delay in processing applications and payouts of the weekly benefit.
State officials said the Washington Employment Security Department was flooded with 10,000 applications in the first week of January alone. By Jan. 28, the office had received more than 22,000, more than four times what the department had forecasted.
While their initial goal was to process all of the applications within two weeks of getting them, they had initially told applicants it could take up to 30 days.
With the volume of applicants, that will take much longer.
In a video on the department’s YouTube page, Commissioner Suzi LeVine said the influx of applications “speaks to the pent-up demand and the profound demand in our state to care for oneself and loved ones.”
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. The time does not need to be taken consecutively, but a minimum of eight hours at a time must be used if the benefit is claimed.
If you make $50,000 a year, less than $2.50 is taken out of your paycheck each week to go toward a part of your leave pay.
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 — though the weekly amount paid out is capped at $1,000 a week.
LeVine said Washington’s paid family leave program is the only one to launch from scratch. To fix the backlog, she said the department is adding 35 new positions.
Even though the state is adding staff, LeVine admitted applicants are still going to face delays. LeVine said due to the backlog, it will take longer, though she couldn’t say how much longer.
“It would be premature to provide that estimate,” she said.
LeVine said about 3,000 people have been approved for family medical leave and are now receiving benefits.
She said the best way for people to keep track of the status of their application is to check the state website, which will show where an applicant is in the process and give a rough estimate of how long processing will take.
LeVine said benefits would be retroactive to an applicant’s leave date, not to the date of application acceptance or approval.
