Maine Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) is here

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UPDATE (3/13)

Today's the day! Mainers are now able to apply for benefits through the state’s new Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program! While applications can be submitted beginning today, leave must occur on or after May 1, 2026 in order to be approved.

The Paid Family and Medical Leave program provides up to 12 weeks of benefits for key life events. Benefits are flexible and portable. Eligible leave can be for:

• Medical Leave: For times when a serious health condition keeps an individual from working.
• Parental Leave: Time to bond with a new child.
• Family Care Leave: Time to care for a loved one with a serious health condition.
• Military Family Leave: Time to prepare for a family member’s deployment.
• Safe Leave: Time to find safety when an individual or a family member is the victim of abuse, violence, or sexual assault.

https://www.maine.gov/paidleave/ has more information for workers who want to submit an application. The application and approval process will be administered by Aflac on behalf of the State of Maine.

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Benefits for eligible family and medical leave will start May 1, 2026.  For the state plan, the pre-application process is anticipated to start in April. If one of your employees needs to take PFML, they’ll file a claim with Aflac, the state’s PFML claims administrator. You can give your employees the information they need about that process by using this form. Note that if you have an approved private plan substitution, your employees will follow a different process. You can use this form to tell them what they need to know. Whichever version of the form you use, you have to provide it to new employees within 30 days of hire. Providing it to existing employees too may cut down on confusion so you get fewer questions.  

The rest of this update applies only to those participating in the state plan. 

For the public plan, Aflac will do these things so you don’t have to:  

· Determine whether employees are eligible for PFML and have time left to use. 

· Review documentation and confirm whether employees are out of work for a covered reason. 

· Calculate wage replacement benefits to pay out, when leave can be approved. 

· Send communications about claim processes and decisions. 

There will be an Aflac Employer Portal for you to log in to. You’ll be able to see the status of any Maine PFML claims your employees submit and, sometimes, provide information Aflac needs as part of their review. We’ll share more information about this soon.  

In the meantime, there’s one task you can do today that will make the process go more smoothly if any of your employees submits a Maine PFML application.  

Aflac will send you a notification email if one of your employees requests Maine PFML, or if there’s action you need to take. You get to decide where those notifications will go. Log in to the Maine Paid Leave Contributions Portal now and follow these instructions to designate your company’s “Claim Contact.”        

What will happen if I don’t do this?  

If one of your employees applies for Maine PFML and you have not designated your company’s Claim Contact, Aflac will send notifications to the email address your company used when you first registered for the Contributions Portal. We will also continue to send reminders about designating a Claim Contact, until our records show that you’ve entered one. 

Next Steps 
Stay tuned for more information later this winter about how the rest of the process will work. 

For more information, check out this recorded webinar going over the details. 

Resources:

• Maine Dept. of Labor's Paid Family and Medical Leave Website
  
• Sign up for Notifications
• FAQ: General Information (Word) (PDF)
• *Additional language translated documents available online.

Originally posted by York Region Chamber of Commerce via Locable