BILL ANALYSIS Ó
AB 607
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Date of Hearing: April 10, 2013
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON INSURANCE
Henry T. Perea, Chair
AB 607 (Perea) - As Introduced: February 20, 2013
SUBJECT : Workers' compensation: disabled dependent children
SUMMARY : Clarifies that a totally disabled dependent child is
entitled to workers' compensation survivor benefits in case of
the death of the parent, regardless of the status of the
surviving spouse. Specifically, this bill :
1)Strikes out a phrase in the statute governing death benefits
for surviving totally disabled children of a deceased worker
that provides death benefits when there is a partially
dependent surviving parent, but perversely denies the death
benefit when there is a totally dependent surviving parent.
2)Strikes out a redundant qualification that the "child" be a
"minor" in the provision that explicitly allows benefits for
totally disabled children regardless of age.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Provides for a comprehensive system of workers' compensation
benefits to be paid to employees, or their dependents in the
case of a job-related death, in the event of illness or injury
that arises out of or in the course of employment.
2)Includes among the various benefits death benefits for
dependents of an employee who dies as a result of a
work-related injury.
3)Provides generally that these death benefits terminate with
respect to minor children when the child turns 18, or
graduates from high school, whichever is later.
4)Provides that, with respect to a child who is a dependent of
the employee who dies, and who is totally disabled due to a
physical or mental condition, the death benefits continue for
the life of the child.
5)Qualifies the right of a disabled child to these benefits with
language that implies that there must be a partially dependent
AB 607
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surviving spouse in order for the totally disabled child to
obtain these benefits.
FISCAL EFFECT : Undetermined.
COMMENTS :
1)Purpose . According to the sponsor, the Police Officers
Research Association of California (PORAC), this bill is
necessary to clarify the rights of totally disabled children
of employees who have died on the job to receive dependent
death benefits. PORAC correctly notes that an unusual phrase
in the statute appears to limit the scope of death benefits to
cases where there is a merely partially dependent surviving
spouse, but denies the expanded "disabled child" death benefit
where there is a fully dependent surviving spouse. The bill
deletes this offending clause, thereby ensuring that totally
disabled dependent children regardless of age obtain the death
benefit to which they should be entitled.
2)Bill applies to all employees . While PORAC is the sponsor of
this measure, the death benefit being addressed by the bill is
not one of the "special" public safety officer benefits that
are afforded to defined police and firefighters. Rather, this
benefit is available to the totally disabled dependent
children of any employee who dies as a result of a job-related
injury.
3)Few cases . While there does not appear to be any rigorous
quantification of the extent to which the bill might expand
the number of cases where this death benefit is awarded, after
consultation with representatives of employer organizations,
the consensus seems to be that there are relatively few cases,
and of those, the beneficiaries were probably intended to be
covered by the existing statute.
4)Prior legislation . AB 749 (Calderon) of 2002 enacted a broad
range of workers' compensation benefit increases, notably in
the amounts paid for permanent disabilities. However, one
small piece of that measure adopted the language at issue in
AB 607. While it remains unclear precisely what was intended
by the language when it was enacted, correcting the resulting
confusion seems consistent with the intent of the original
enactment.
AB 607
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REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
Police Officers' Research Association of California
Opposition
None received.
Analysis Prepared by : Mark Rakich / INS. / (916) 319-2086