COVID-19 Leave and Claim Trends Report

Tracking leave and claim trendlines across the United States

June 17, 2020

The Unum Leave and Claim Trends Report offers a line of sight into leave requests and Short Term Disability (STD) claims from our extensive customer base of employers across the United States.

The report shows volumes and the proportion of COVID-19-related claims, helping employers, consultants and brokers understand trends and benchmarks as they navigate the ever-evolving COVID-19 landscape.

We first began releasing these trends and benchmarks in May. The new monthly report, released today, reflects a changing landscape as many employees return to work.

From mid-May to mid-June (Figure 1), COVID-19-related claims continued to stabilize, with a downward trend seen in the first two weeks of June. Alongside this decline, however, we see a notable a rise in the proportion of non-COVID-19 claims (Figure 2).

Figure 1: Unum Leave and Claim Trends Report

COVID-19 LEAVE REQUESTS AND SHORT TERM DISABILITY VOLUMES BY WEEK

“We are still seeing robust volumes of Short Term Disability claims and leave requests coming into our Absence Management Center,” explains Michelle Boucher, Unum SVP of Benefit Operations.

“Overall volumes continue to be above average. However, for the past two weeks the mix has definitely been shifting. We are seeing a resurgence of claims for non-COVID leave and STD — although not yet to pre-pandemic levels. Clearly, as businesses are opening, restrictions are starting to relax, and postponed surgeries are being rescheduled.”

Unum continues to closely monitor these trends and adjust our staffing accordingly, to ensure we continue to provide the service and support our customers and their employees need.

Figure 2: Overall Leave and Claim Trends

COVID-19 AND NON-COVID-19-RELATED LEAVE REQUESTS AND SHORT TERM DISABILITY CLAIMS BY WEEK

Bar chart showing overall leave requests and Short Term Disability claims by week from the week of March 15th to the week of June 7th. See table below for data — **Note: See long description associated with this image. Source: Unum Employer Survey, June 2020**

Leave and claims trends timeline:

January – February: Pandemic planning begins. News about a potential pandemic began to surface in late January and February of this year. At Unum, we swiftly recalibrated our service-center business operations to respond to incoming disability claims and leave requests.
March: Claim surge materializes. On March 11, the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic. Our first significant COVID-related claim and leave request volume emerged in the week of March 15, with trend lines steeply rising until the end of March.
April – May: Claims level off. After April 1, we began to see a leveling off of claims and leaves in mid-April, which continued through the end of May.
June: Non-COVID-19-related claims begin to climb. COVID-19 trend lines begin a downward curve. At the same time, a rising trend of non-COVID-19 leave and STD claims is appearing, reflecting the continued opening up of the country and easing of state restrictions.

About Unum's Absence Management Center

Unum is a leading U.S. disability and leave provider. Its Absence Management Center (AMC) administers close to 200 state leave laws, as well as federal laws such as the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the paid sick leave laws enacted under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA). We offer an integrated model to leave management, with one intake point for Short Term Disability and leave claims.

To continue to stay abreast of our reporting and data insights, sign up for the HR trends newsletter here.

Reference material

Figure 2: Overall Leave Requests and Short Term Disability Claims by Week from March to June [Back to figure]

	Non-COVID-19-related	COVID-19-related
Week of March 15	91%	9%
Week of March 22	79%	21%
Week of March 29	67%	33%
Week of April 5	67%	33%
Week of April 12	70%	30%
Week of April 19	70%	30%
Week of April 26	73%	27%
Week of May 3	76%	24%
Week of May 10	79%	21%
Week of May 17	78%	22%
Week of May 24	84%	16%
Week of May 31	83%	17%
Week of June 7	86%	14%