S 3948 NY
Allows certain claimants to be reclassified as permanent total disability or total industrial disability due to extreme hardship
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Summary
This bill amends New York's workers' compensation law to allow workers with a loss of wage-earning capacity greater than fifty percent to request reclassification as permanently totally disabled or totally industrially disabled due to extreme hardship. The bill defines extreme hardship to include situations where the worker's income from disability benefits would be less than fifty percent of their average weekly wage, where they would be unable to meet living expenses, where additional medical or vocational factors have further reduced wage-earning capacity, or where their income would fall below federal poverty guidelines. The bill removes the prior time restriction that limited such requests to the year before indemnity benefits were scheduled to end.
AI-generated plain-language summary of the bill text — neutral, and may be imperfect. See the full text below for the exact wording.
Official abstract
Allows certain claimants to be reclassified as permanent total disability or total industrial disability due to extreme hardship; defines extreme hardship.
Sponsor (1)
- Jessica Ramos Democratic · primary
1 coauthor / cosponsor
- Robert Jackson Democratic · cosponsor
Action history (4)
- Jan 30, 2025 REFERRED TO LABOR · upper
- May 27, 2025 REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE · upper
- Jan 7, 2026 REFERRED TO LABOR · upper
- May 13, 2026 REPORTED AND COMMITTED TO FINANCE · upper
Text versions (2)
Full text
Full text imported from assembly.state.ny.us
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Bill No.: Summary Actions Committee Votes Floor Votes Memo Text LFIN Chamber Video/Transcript S03948 Summary: BILL NO S03948   SAME AS SAME AS A03723
  SPONSOR RAMOS   COSPNSR JACKSON   MLTSPNSR   Amd §35, Work Comp L   Allows certain claimants to be reclassified as permanent total disability or total industrial disability due to extreme hardship; defines extreme hardship.
Go to top S03948 Text:
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________
3948
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN SENATE
January 30, 2025 ___________
Introduced by Sens. RAMOS, JACKSON -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Labor
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 such injured worker's average 14 weekly wage upon termination of permanent partial disability benefits; 15 (b) the injured worker will be unable to meet expenses for themself and 16 any dependents upon termination of permanent partial disability bene- 17 fits; (c) additional medical, functional, or vocational factors arising 18 subsequent to the classification of permanent partial disability have 19 further eroded the injured worker's wage earning capacity; or (d) the 20 injured worker's income would be below the federal poverty guidelines 21 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. LBD06518-01-5
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