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Division of Temporary Disability and Family Leave Insurance

• Temporary Disability provides cash benefits for expectant mothers when they need to stop working before giving birth, and while recovering afterward.
• Family Leave provides cash benefits after the recovery period so new mothers can bond with their babies during the first year.

In addition, your job may be protected under state and federal job protection laws. Learn more about how these programs and laws work together here. (Haga clic aquí para español.)

• Start an application
• Finish an application you started
• Access claim documents
• Check claim status
• Update your name or address
• Extend or end a claim

• Start an application (FL1 & FL2)
• Finish an application you started
• Access claim documents
• Check claim status
• Update your name or address
• Download your 1099-G

Step 1: Plan Ahead

To help understand your eligibility for cash benefits and job protection before your leave begins, read our handout on benefits and protections for new and expecting parents who work in NJ. (Haga clic aquí para español.)

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Step 2: Watch Our Video Tutorials

Watch our step-by-step guides for completing an online application for Temporary Disability and/or Family Leave insurance. They'll walk you through each question with detailed instructions. Plus, you'll get helpful tips along the way.

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Step 3: Apply Online When You Stop Working

Apply for Temporary Disability Insurance benefits after your doctor certifies that you're disabled due to pregnancy, and you stop working. If you don't already have an account for our secure online system, click here and follow the prompts from the "First Time User?" button.

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Step 4: Print Instruction Forms

After your parts of the application are complete, you'll be prompted to print instructions with a unique Online Form ID number. Give them to your healthcare provider so they can complete their part online.

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Step 5: If Approved, Access Your Funds

If we approve your application, we'll mail you a debit card to access your benefit payments. For more information about how the debit card works, click here.

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Step 6: Notify Us When You Deliver

We need to know your delivery information so you can start getting Family Leave Insurance benefits for bonding after you recover from delivery. Notify us by completing the form P30 sent to you in the mail.

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Step 7: Receive Benefits for Bonding

After your recovery period (Temporary Disability) ends, you can receive Family Leave Insurance benefits in a consecutive twelve-week period, or 56 individual days throughout your baby's first year.

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Step 8: Prepare for Tax Time

It's your employer's responsibility to report your Temporary Disability Insurance benefits on your W-2 as Third-Party Sick Pay or Other Wages. If you have questions at tax time, talk to your employer. For Family Leave Insurance benefits, you'll need to download a 1099-G in January for the prior year.

• General Information
• Temporary Disability
  for Pregnancy
• Family Leave for
  Newborn Bonding
• Maternity Leave FAQ

Cash Benefits and Job Protections for Expectant Parents

Cash Benefits:

• Temporary DisabilityInsurance typically provides 10-12 weeks of cash benefits for when you need to stop working during your pregnancy and while recovering from child birth.
• Family LeaveInsurance provides up to 12 weeks of cash benefits for time taken off from work to bond with your new child before your baby's first birthday.

Job Protection:

• Federal Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave to care for yourself before and after childbirth and to bond with your new child. Enforced by the US Department of Labor.
• NJ Family Leave Act (NJFLA) provides up to 12 weeks of unpaid job-protected leave to bond with your new child. Enforced by NJ Division on Civil Rights.
• Take up to 12 weeks of FMLA for pregnancy/recovery and/or a related serious health condition and up to 12 weeks of NJFLA for bonding, for a total of up to 24 weeks of job protection.

Please note that the NJ Department of Labor does not enforce these job protection laws. Learn more about how these cash benefits and job protections for parents work together here. (Haga clic aquí para español.)

Pregnancy: Covered the Same Way as a Disability

Both pregnancy and the postpartum period often come with physical limitations for expectant and new mothers. While not an illness or injury, pregnancy is still considered disabling when your healthcare provider recommends that you stop working because you’re close to your due date, or experiencing complications.

“If a woman is temporarily unable to perform her job due to a medical condition related to pregnancy or childbirth, the employer or other covered entity must treat her in the same way as it treats any other temporarily disabled employee.” – U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

How to Apply

Apply for Temporary Disability Insurance benefits only when you have stopped working and your doctor certifies that you are unable to work due to your pregnancy.

You can apply for Temporary Disability Insurance benefits online, in the mail, or by fax. Instructions are included on the application. Read all the instructions carefully before completing the application. If filing by mail or fax, don’t forget to sign and date the form.

When you apply for Temporary Disability Insurance benefits, we’ll need information from you, and your medical provider. It is your responsibility to have all this information – including the medical provider part – submitted to us online, by mail, or by fax.

This is the information we need to complete your application:

1. From you:
2. Your Social Security number, contact information, and date of birth
3. The date you became disabled
4. Contact information for the medical provider who treated you within 10 days of the first day you were unable to work
5. Dates of any emergency/urgent care treatment or hospitalizations
6. Dates you worked for any employers in the last 18 months, the employers’ contact information, and the address(es) where you worked
7. Dates of any paid time off or other benefits you received after the last day you worked
8. The date when you expect to recover and return to work (or the date you recovered and returned to work)

• A medical certification to confirm the period you are unable to work

When you complete your part online, you will get a unique Online Form ID number to give to your medical provider. They will use this number to submit their part to us online. You will be prompted to print out (or save as a PDF file) a page that has your unique Online Form ID number, along with instructions for your medical provider to follow. If you do not have access to a printer when initially filing your application, you have a fourteen day window to return and print the instructions when a printer is available. You can do so by clicking Access claim documents at the top of this page.

If planning ahead, you may start your online application up to 60 days in advance. To avoid deletion of your draft application: (1) within 14 days of starting the application, provide all information and confirm your claim; then (2) within 14 days after the start of your leave, certify and file your claim.

If applying after your leave begins, you have 30 days' from your first day of leave to file your application.

How to Receive Benefits Quickly

We would like to process your claim quickly, but can’t do it without your help.

Keep these tips in mind to avoid delays and receive your benefits faster:

1. Apply online. It’s faster than printing and mailing or faxing your application to us. It also allows your medical provider to easily complete their section online after you pass along their part of the application. Remember, it is your responsibility to give these instructions to the medical provider to complete – they are not automatically notified by our system.
2. Fill out your application completely and accurately. Read all instructions first. If you’re not sure how to answer a question, check out our FAQ or Form Look Up for more information. If you still need help, contact us.
3. Include your Social Security number on all correspondence.
4. Don’t fax us pictures of documents. If you want to submit a digital copy of a document, use a free mobile app like Adobe Scan or Dropbox to transform a mobile phone picture into a high-contrast, black-and-white PDF file you can print and fax.
5. Get ready to receive your payments. Money Network/My Banking Direct will mail your prepaid debit card in a plain envelope (which might even look like junk mail), so check all your mail carefully. If you already have a debit card from a previous Temporary Disability, Family Leave, or Unemployment Insurance claim, we will use that same card to pay benefits for new claims. If you can’t find your card, contact Money Network/My Banking Direct for a replacement.

Who Qualifies for State Benefits

New Jersey workers are encouraged to apply.

In order to have a valid claim for Temporary Disability Insurance, you need to have paid into the program through your employment and meet minimum gross earnings requirements (listed below.) Temporary Disability Insurance is available to most New Jersey workers.

• federal government employees
• optional for local government, including school district employees
• out-of-state employees
• faith-based organizations
• workers that are not technically employees (such as contractors).

If your employer is covered for Temporary Disability Insurance, they are required to set up payroll contributions for you. If you believe you are covered under the program but payroll contributions have not been made, you are still encouraged to apply as it may have been an error. If you became unemployed recently and have a need for Temporary Disability Insurance, you still may be eligible for benefits and we encourage you to apply. In that case, we will forward your application to our Disability During Unemployment section.

How Much I Need to Earn to Qualify

Your employer is required to report your wages to the state after each calendar quarter. When your claim is under review, we consider the earnings reported for the 5 completed quarters prior to the week your leave began. The first 4 quarters of that time frame is called the base year.

To qualify for Temporary Disability Insurance in 2023, you must have worked 20 weeks earning at least $260 weekly, or have earned a combined total of $13,000 in those four quarters (the base year).

To qualify for Temporary Disability Insurance in 2024, you must have worked 20 weeks earning at least $283 weekly, or have earned a combined total of $14,200 in those four quarters (the base year).

Your regular base year period consists of 52 weeks and is determined by the date you apply for Temporary Disability Insurance benefits, as outlined in the chart below:

The wages earned during your base year will determine the amount of weekly benefits you may receive, and the maximum amount of benefits you can claim.

For workers who don't qualify with a standard base year, we have other ways of calculating a base year. Click here for more information on these alternate base years.

How Benefits Are Calculated

1. First, we calculate your average weekly wage. We do this by dividing your base year earnings by the number of base weeks.
In 2023, a "base week" is any week you earn $260 or more.
In 2024, a "base week" is any week you earn $283 or more.

2. Now, we can determine your weekly benefit rate. Claimants are paid 85% of their average weekly wage, up to the maximum weekly benefit rate set for that calendar year.
In 2023, the maximum weekly benefit rate is $1,025 per week.
In 2024, the maximum weekly benefit rate is $1,055 per week.

For example, let’s say Sarah's first day of disability is Friday, March 1, 2024. To see how much she would receive weekly on Temporary Disability Insurance, we look at her reported wages for the first four of the last five completed quarters: