Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Pca Payroll topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Caregivers testify they went unpaid for months as lawmakers are urged to pass SB498
Summary
Dozens of personal care attendants and family caregivers told the Human Services Committee that payroll failures after a fiscal-intermediary switch left many unpaid or underpaid for weeks or months; witnesses blamed both GT Independence and gaps in state processes and urged passage of SB498 to protect paychecks and require better notice and oversight.
Dozens of personal care attendants, family caregivers and union representatives told the Connecticut General Assembly Human Services Committee that a switch to a private fiscal intermediary and a series of administrative problems left thousands of caregivers without pay — sometimes for months — and urged the committee to pass SB498 to protect paychecks and improve oversight.
"I started crying. I panic," said Leticia Council, a personal care attendant of two decades, recounting the first time she did not receive a paycheck. "We already live paycheck to paycheck…we still show up for work." Several witnesses described rent loss, repossessed cars and mental-health crises after paychecks failed to arrive.
Union representatives and caregivers described overlapping failures by GT Independence (GTI), the state's fiscal intermediary, and by the Department of Social Services (DDS). 1199 union organizers told the committee that DSS data showed 5,000 non-payments in November alone and that more than 3,000 grievances had been filed since the payroll problems began. One union witness said a limited settlement produced back pay for 877 people but that hundreds of grievances remain unresolved.
Speakers described common problem patterns: missed Medicaid redeterminations that interrupted consumers' waivers, agency transfers that delayed paperwork and a retrospective budgeting system that made month-to-month hours and pay hard to predict. "They were pointing fingers at each other," said Kimmy Fortune Senior, reading testimony for a PCA whose consumer's waiver suspension led to six months without pay. "There's no reason that we should have to work and not get paid."
Several witnesses urged specific changes in SB498 and committee action: mandatory timely notice to PCAs when a consumer's eligibility status or budget changes, stronger state monitoring of fiscal-intermediary performance, expedited grievance resolution, and statutory protections ensuring pay while disputes are resolved. Union and caregiver witnesses also called for consideration of moving payroll duties to public-sector management or strengthening contract oversight and penalties for contractors that fail to process payroll correctly.
State union witnesses acknowledged partial progress: committee members and DSS negotiated a settlement that restored pay for many workers, and the commissioner paused some procedural changes that had increased disruption. But advocates said the fixes are incomplete. "We're still seeing unresolved grievances from 2025," a union representative said, asking the committee to adopt SB498 to reduce future harm and stabilize the workforce.
The hearing record shows a steady refrain: caregivers who provide day-to-day support for people with disabilities and elders repeatedly described economic precarity caused by payroll failures and asked that lawmakers act to prevent the situation from recurring. The committee took testimony but did not vote at the session's close; witnesses said timely legislative action would be needed to resolve the backlog and to prevent new payroll disruptions.
