Post Treatment Disability

I'm a member of BAYS, which is a Bay Area organization focused on providing support and resources for women undergoing cancer treatment. Recently, a thread was started around receiving post-treatment disability. Most us don't realize the prolonged effects that treatment can have on our systems and our lifestyles. Here's what one Legal-Aid lawyer told us about benefits:

"...In general, you can go on leave after treatment as long as your health care provider certifies that you need the leave due to your disability (e.g. to recover from the effects of treatment). There are different eligibility requirements for different kinds of leave/programs -- wage replacement (State Disability Insurance or private disability insurance) vs. job-protected leave from your employer (family/medical leave or leave as a reasonable accommodation) . As long as you're eligible, you should be able to receive both wage replacement and job protection during a medical leave after treatment."

Sleuthing a little further, I found out the Gov. Brown passed into a law a bill to allow workers to receive paid family leave benefits while caring for seriously ill grandparents, grandchildren, siblings, children and in-laws. The law will provide up to six weeks of partial wage replacement benefits per year. The law goes into effect July 2014. This falls on the heels of California's Paid Family Leave Law (PFL), which is the country's first law to provide partial pay to caregivers as they take time off to tend to ill family members or to bond with new children. 

Want to learn more? Here are a few links:
Fact Sheet for SB 770
SF Gate article on expanding leave