Death Claims

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Death Claims: Workers' Compensation

What is a Death Claim?

  • Complete Details

    If you depended financially on a family member who died as a result of a work-related injury or illness, you may be able to collect what are known as “death benefits” under California workers’ comp system. These benefits are intended to help compensate the survivors for the loss of financial support from the deceased employee. In addition to death benefits, the employer (or its insurance company) must pay an amount for burial expenses.

  • Who is eligible for death benefits?

    You may be eligible for death benefits if you were totally or partially dependent on the deceased employee for your financial support at the time of the injury, and you were either a member of the employee’s household or where the employee’s close relative. Qualifying relatives include:


    • children (including step- and adopted children)
    • spouses
    • grandchildren
    • parents and siblings (including in-laws)
    • grandparents
    • aunts and uncles, and
    • nieces and nephews.

    Certain family members are automatically considered total dependents of the employee:


    • children under the age of 18
    • adult children who are unable to earn a living because they're physically or mentally incapacitated, and
    • a surviving spouse who earned $30,000 or less in the 12 months before the employee's death.

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

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  • When Do You Have to File a Claim for Death Benefits?

    At the latest, surviving dependents must file a claim for death benefits within a year after the employee died as a result of the work-related injury or illness, and no more than 240 weeks after the injury itself. If the employer has had to pay certain types of compensation related to its misconduct (and the death came more than a year after the injury), the filing deadline is one year after the last payment date for that compensation. (Cal. Labor Code § 5406 (2020).)

  • Will my death benefit also cover burial expenses?

    In addition to death benefits, the workers' comp insurance company must pay the reasonable burial expenses for the deceased employee, up to a maximum of $10,000 for injuries that happened after 2012. (Cal. Labor Code § 4701(a) (2020).)



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