The Massachusetts Department of Family and Medical Leave (DFML) continues to see an increase in the number of claims, according to the agency’s annual report for Fiscal Year 2023.

The number of total claims filed in FY 2023 was 171,219, up from 140,038 in FY 2022. Of that total, 143,356 applications were approved and 27,863 were denied. The denials constituted 16.27% of all claims filed with the agency, down from a denial rate of 19.64% in FY 2022.

The annual report captures trends for employers covered by the DFML. Employers covered by private insurers may have different experiences.

As in Fiscal Year 2022, leave for the employee’s own serious health condition was the most common form of benefit request (49%) The second most-requested benefit was family leave to bond following the birth, adoption or foster care placement of a child (more than 27%). The third largest category was for pregnancy-related leave, accounting for 13% of all claims.

Requesting time off to care for a family member with a serious health condition constituted a bit more than 10% of all claims.

Applications denied

Of the 16.27% of benefit applications denied, most were denied because the applicant could not show eligibility (for example, the employee was covered by a private plan, had insufficient earnings, failed to meet the financial eligibility test, or applied more than 26 weeks late).

The other major category was the failure to provide the necessary documentation, which was broken down into two categories -the employee did not submit required documents, or the documents submitted did not comply with DFML requirements

These two groups alone represented 55% of all the denied applications. Other reasons for denial included applications in which the employee had already exhausted leave or the application was not timely.

The largest age cohort for benefits was 31 to 40 years old (approximately 36,768 approved applicants), consistent with the results from last year’s report. The category 21 to 30 years of age was the next largest, with 17,365 approved applications. Approved applications by employees aged 41 to 50 and 51 to 60 each had approximately 15,000 approved applicants.

Women constituted more than 61% of all approved applications. Men received more than 36% of all approved applications. Since applicants are not required to disclose gender, 2% of applicants listed unknown, prefer not to answer or non-binary.

The median response time from employers is three calendar days, up from FY 2022, which had a response time of 2.75 days on average. The initial determination by the DFML is made within 17 days, and final determinations are made within 27 days.

AIM members with questions about PFML or other human-resource matters may call the AIM Helpline at 1-800-470-6277.