Caregivers May Be Eligible for Connecticut’s Essential Workers Assistance Program

In the recently concluded legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly expanded the Essential Workers COVID-19 Assistance Program to cover a broader range of essential employees and extended the deadline to apply for the program’s benefits from July 20, 2022, to December 31, 2022.

​The program provides benefits for uncompensated leave, out-of-pocket medical expenses, and burial expenses to certain essential employees who could not work between March 10, 2020, and July 20, 2021, due to contracting COVID-19, or symptoms that were later diagnosed as COVID-19.
 
The state budget implementer, Public Act 22-118, also changes how the program’s benefits are determined and administered.
 
Public Act 22-118 expanded the essential employees covered by the program to include those who the CDC recommended for a COVID-19 vaccination in phase 1c of the program, including, among others, certain public health workers.
 
The state Comptroller’s Office is administering the Essential Workers COVID-19 Assistance Program.
 
“Essential workers made enormous sacrifices during the pandemic to keep our state safe and our economy running. This fund is one small way for us to return the favor. I encourage all eligible workers, or their families to apply,” Comptroller Natalie Braswell said in a press release promoting the program.