Researcher: LRH Page 1 3/27/25
OLR Bill Analysis
HB 6408
AN ACT EXPANDING COMPENSATION TO DEPENDENTS FOR A
DEATH RESULTING FROM AN ACCIDENT.
SUMMARY
Under current law, when employees with no presumptive
dependents (e.g., spouse or minor children) die due to a work-related
accident, anyone who was wholly dependent in fact upon them may
receive their workers’ compensation benefits. This bill also allows for
these benefits, under those circumstances, to be divided equally among
the deceased employee’s next of kin (presumably, those who are not the
employee’s dependents). (The bill does not specify who qualifies as
“next of kin,” or which option must be used if the employee has next of
kin who are not dependents and non-kin who are wholly dependent in
fact.)
Under existing law, unchanged by the bill, these benefits may be paid
for up to 312 weeks from the employee’s death. Survivors who were
wholly dependent in fact must be paid the full benefit rate, and benefits
for those partially dependent in fact must be at least $20 per week, but
no more than the (1) full benefit rate or (2) average weekly amount that
the deceased contributed to their support. (The bill does not specify a
benefit rate for nondependent next of kin receiving benefits under the
bill.)
EFFECTIVE DATE: July 1, 2025
COMMITTEE ACTION
Labor and Public Employees Committee
Joint Favorable
Yea 13 Nay 0 (03/13/2025)