Delaware’s employee paid leave program is now six months old, and working through system inefficiencies and claim delays that applicants experienced in its first months.
Division of Paid Leave director Chris Counihan said operations are still a work in progress, as many paid leave requests are processed manually by division staff. But more of the review process will be automated in the future.
"So there's delays and there's errors because that is what manual processes entail," Counihan said. "...We are actually working through a process to get all of the defects in our system to be resolved."
He added the most far-reaching system defects will be resolved in the next two weeks. Ones affecting a particular employer will be resolved by the end of August, and smaller defects will be resolved by December.
"Each and every claim involves manual workarounds that we will be automating in the near future," he said.
The state created its paid leave program through legislation passed in 2022. It’s among fourteen states and the District of Columbia that have established mandatory state paid family leave systems.
The program requires employers to offer eligible workers 12 weeks of paid parental leave per year, and 6 weeks every two years for other types of care and emergencies. Employers with 10 or more employees are required to participate.
The division launched with the most basic version of its processing system and is scaling up, Counihan said. It just reached 40 employees, plus six temps. It will employ approximately 52 people at full capacity.
Counihan said despite the early challenges, "it's happening, after years of talking about it."
Before the program's launch, he said no private insurance plans in Delaware provided paid family caregiving leave.
As of June 30, the division's paid out more than 1,700 claims since it started accepting them in January, totaling $7.6 million. Medical and parental leave make up nearly 90% of the approved claims. Caregiver leave makes up more than 11%.
"People are actually getting benefit checks," he said. "They're able to stay home with their loved ones, whether that's a sick family member or a new child. There's a lot of tough times in your life, and we can at least help financially with that."
If approved, the program covers up to 80 percent of wages – capping at $900 per week. People working more than 25 hours a week who have been in the state for more than a year qualify.
Counihan said looking at other states with similar programs, approximately 6% of employees take "some sort" of paid leave early year. In its first six months, Delaware isn't quite there. But as more people learn about the program participation will increase.
He said approximately 40% of the claims received are rejected. Some of these are because people apply whose employers already have their own private paid leave insurance plan. Other common rejections are because an employer is under 10 employees or the applicant doesn't work enough hours.
