BILL ANALYSIS
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
Mark DeSaulnier, Chair
Date of Hearing: June 9, 2010 2009-2010 Regular
Session
Consultant: Alma Perez Fiscal:No
Urgency: No
Bill No: AB 1696
Author: Bill Berryhill
Version: As amended May 11, 2010
SUBJECT
Death benefits: payment duration.
KEY ISSUE
Should the children of a deceased public officer be allowed to
receive workers' compensation death benefits past their 18th
birthday as long as they are still in high school?
PURPOSE
To extend workers' compensation death benefits for minors until
the age of 19 years provided he or she is still attending high
school.
ANALYSIS
Existing law establishes a workers' compensation system,
administered by the Administrative Director (AD) of the Division
of Workers' Compensation (DWC), to compensate an employee for
injuries that arise out of, or in the course of, employment.
Employers are required to secure the payment of workers'
compensation for injuries incurred by their employees. Workers'
compensation insurance provides six basic benefits which include
medical care, temporary disability benefits, permanent
disability benefits, supplemental job displacement benefits or
vocational rehabilitation and death benefits. Existing law
provides certain methods for determining workers' compensation
benefits payable to a worker or his or her dependents for
purposes of temporary disability, permanent total disability,
permanent partial disability, and in the case of death.
Under existing law , if there is any person wholly dependent for
support upon a deceased employee, that person shall receive a
full death benefit, as specified. In the case of one or more
totally dependent minor children of a deceased, existing law
provides that these minors shall receive death benefits until
the youngest child attains 18 years of age, or until the death
of a child physically or mentally incapacitated from earning.
(Labor Code 4703.5) Existing law specifies that in this
instance, death benefits are required to be paid in the same
manner and amount as temporary total disability indemnity would
have been paid to the deceased employee, except that no payment
shall be made at a weekly rate of less than $224.
This Bill would extend workers' compensation death benefits
until the youngest child reaches 19 years of age and is
receiving the benefits as a child of a parent who served in a
specified public position and who was killed in the performance
of duty. Specifically, this bill:
Provides that notwithstanding the age limitations in
existing law, the payment of death benefits shall continue
until the youngest child attains 19 years of age if the
child is still attending high school and is receiving the
death benefits as a child of one of the following persons
who was killed in the performance of duty:
o An active member of a sheriff's office;
o An active member of a police or fire
department of a city, county, city and county,
district, or other public or municipal corporation or
political subdivision;
o A peace officer (Penal Code, Chapter 4.5
commencing with Section 830) who is primarily engaged
in active law enforcement activities;
o An active firefighting member of the
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or
o An active member of any county forestry or
firefighting department or unit.
Hearing Date: June 9, 2010 AB 1696
Consultant: Alma Perez Page 2
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
Specifies that this extension does not apply to a child
of a person whose principal duties are clerical or
otherwise do not clearly fall within the scope of active
law enforcement or active firefighting services, such as
stenographers, telephone operators, and other office
workers.
COMMENTS
1. Need for this bill?
For a family who has lost a parent due to death in the line of
duty, workers' compensation death benefits provide much needed
income in the form of temporary total disability indemnity as
it would have been paid to the deceased employee. Current law
extends workers' compensation benefits to dependent minor
children until the youngest child attains 18 years of age, or
until the death of a child physically or mentally
incapacitated from earning. However, the author's office
cites a situation in the city of Ceres where the daughter of a
Sergeant killed in the line of duty lost her death benefits
when she turned 18 years even though she was still attending
high school. This bill would address this problem by
extending workers' compensation death benefits until the
youngest child reaches 19 years of age if the child is still
attending high school. This bill would also follow the lead
of the federal government by conforming to the policy followed
by the Social Security Administration which allows benefits to
be paid to unmarried children under 18, or up to age 19 if
they are attending high school full time.
2. Proponent Arguments :
According to the author of the measure, in 2005, Sergeant
Howard Stevenson became the first officer in the history of
the Ceres Police Department to die in the line of duty,
leaving behind a wife and two children. After his tragic
death, Sgt. Stevenson's family began receiving workers'
compensation survivor benefits. The author states that,
Hearing Date: June 9, 2010 AB 1696
Consultant: Alma Perez Page 3
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
unfortunately, when the youngest child turns 18, benefits
ceased to be paid to the family placing an immediate and
considerable financial burden on the household if the child is
still living at home and attending high school as was the case
for Sgt. Stevenson's family.
According to proponents, Sgt. Stevenson's daughter will
graduate high school in June, but her benefits expired last
year in June of 2009 when she turned 18 years of age.
According to proponents, this resulted in an unplanned
economic hardship for her family, requiring her mother to
increase her work schedule to meet the deficit in the family's
monthly budget. Proponents argue that these dependent children
have suffered greatly by the loss of their parent and having
the additional stress of severely impacting the families'
monthly income during this difficult time is punitive.
Proponents argue that death benefits should be extended to the
totally dependent minor children of a deceased firefighter or
law enforcement officer until the youngest child reaches 19
years of age, provided he or she is still attending high
school. In addition, proponents argue that the federal
government has already provided an exception for situations
such as this with respect to dependent children who receive
Social Security benefits. The Social Security Administration
allows a child to continue receiving full benefits until he or
she reaches age 19, graduates from high school, or ceases to
attend high school on a full-time basis via an exemption
request form.
Overall, proponents argue that our public safety officials put
their lives on the line everyday to protect the health and
safety of all Californians, and in the rare and tragic case of
an officer's or firefighter's death, their families should be
provided with as much assistance as possible in their time of
greatest need.
3. Opponent Arguments :
According to opponents, while they are not opposed to the
concept of providing benefits to dependent minors, opponents
feel that the provisions of this bill go too far. According
Hearing Date: June 9, 2010 AB 1696
Consultant: Alma Perez Page 4
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
to opponents, while they are certainly sympathetic to the
plight of children whose parents were killed in their capacity
as public safety officers, opponents cannot support an
extension of death benefits past the point where children
legally become adults. Opponents argue that death benefits
for minor children are specifically designed to carry the last
minor child of a deceased employee into adulthood, and while
there are many conceivable reasons that families would want to
extend these benefits past age 18, opponents simply cannot
support expanding the goal of death benefits past the one
marker that is consistent across all situations - age.
Some opponents argue that there is no demonstrated reason why
this expanded benefit should be available only to the children
of public safety officers and argue that they can identify no
factor that makes the children of public safety officers more
deserving of additional survivor benefits than the children of
any other deceased employee. In addition, opponents argue
that a child who is still attending high school at age 19 due
to poor performance in prior years would be eligible for
additional benefits at the employer's expense. According to
opponents, a fair compromise would be to provide death
benefits until the end of the school year during which the
dependent minor turns 18. Overall, opponents are concerned
about the additional unnecessary exposure for death benefits
that this bill would create.
SUPPORT
California State Firefighters' Association (CSFA)
Ceres Department of Public Safety, Art de Werk (Chief of
Police/Director of Public Safety)
Ceres Police Officer Association
OPPOSITION
California Coalition on Workers' Compensation (CCWC)
CSAC Excess Insurance Authority (CSAC-EIA)
Hearing Date: June 9, 2010 AB 1696
Consultant: Alma Perez Page 5
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations
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Hearing Date: June 9, 2010 AB 1696
Consultant: Alma Perez Page 6
Senate Committee on Labor and Industrial Relations