Allows certain claimants to be reclassified as permanent total disability or total industrial disability due to extreme hardship; defines extreme hardship.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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7726--A
IN SENATE
February 11, 2020
___________
Introduced by Sens. RAMOS, JACKSON -- read twice and ordered printed,
and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor -- commit-
tee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recom-
mitted to said committee
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.
LBD15035-02-0
