RI TCI: Eligibility, Benefit Amount, Job Protection, and Claims

Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance (TCI) pays eligible workers partial wages for up to eight weeks when they take time off to bond with a new child or care for a seriously ill family member, and it guarantees their job back when leave ends.¹ The program is run by the Department of Labor and Training (DLT), funded entirely through employee payroll deductions, and built on top of the state’s Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) system.

Who Qualifies

TCI uses the same monetary eligibility rules as TDI. The state looks at your “base period,” generally the first four of the last five completed calendar quarters before you file. You qualify if you earned at least $19,200 in total base period wages. You also qualify if you earned at least $3,200 in your highest-earning quarter and your total base period wages equal at least 1.5 times that highest quarter amount.² These numbers adjust periodically, so if you’re close to the threshold, check the DLT’s current Quick Reference before filing.

Beyond the earnings test, your reason for leave has to fit one of the categories the statute recognizes.

Qualifying Reasons for Leave

Bonding With a New Child

Biological, adoptive, and foster parents can take bonding leave at any point within the first twelve months after a child’s birth or placement.³ If your domestic partner is the biological or adoptive parent, you qualify too.

Caring for a Family Member

Caregiving leave is available when a qualifying family member has a serious health condition that requires your involvement. The statute defines “family member” as a child, parent, parent-in-law, grandparent, spouse, or domestic partner.³ Siblings, cousins, and grandchildren are not on that list. The condition has to be serious enough to require medical supervision; routine appointments and minor illnesses don’t count.

Organ and Bone Marrow Donation

As of January 1, 2026, TCI also covers donors. Bone marrow donors can draw up to one week of benefits, and organ donors can draw up to thirty business days.⁴

How Much You’ll Receive

Your weekly benefit equals 4.62% of the wages you were paid in your highest-earning base period quarter.⁴ There’s a weekly cap that moves each year with the state’s average weekly wage. For 2025, that cap was $1,070 per week, and the DLT publishes the current figure in its Quick Reference.⁵ Once your rate is set, it stays the same for the full benefit year.

If you have children under 18, add a dependency allowance. It’s the greater of $20 or 7% of your weekly benefit rate per dependent, up to five dependents.⁶ On a $600 weekly benefit, that’s roughly $42 extra per child each week.

TCI pays for up to eight weeks in a benefit year, and those weeks come out of the broader 30-week TDI pool. If you use all eight TCI weeks and then develop a medical condition of your own during the same benefit year, you’d have up to 22 TDI weeks left.⁶ Worth keeping in mind if you have an ongoing health issue.

Notifying Your Employer and Keeping Your Job

Give your employer at least 30 days’ written notice before your leave begins. If the timing is genuinely unforeseeable, like a premature birth or a sudden medical emergency, the 30-day requirement is excused, but tell your employer as soon as you can. Skipping notice when you could have given it can delay or reduce your benefits.³

When your leave ends, your employer has to restore you to your old position or an equivalent one, with the same seniority, pay, benefits, and other terms, including the fringe benefits and service credits you’d built up.³ Health insurance has to continue during the leave on the same terms as if you were still at work. This protection sits inside the TCI statute itself, so it applies even if your employer is too small to be covered by the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.

Filing Your Claim

You can’t file until after your leave has actually started, and you have to file within 30 days of your first day out.⁴ Missing that window can disqualify your claim entirely.

The fastest route is the DLT’s online portal. You’ll need your Social Security number, your name and contact details, and your leave start date.⁷ You can also mail a paper application, which takes longer.

The documentation depends on the leave type. Caregiving claims require a medical form (currently TCI-3G) completed by the family member’s healthcare provider, documenting the serious health condition and the need for care.⁸ Bonding claims need proof of birth or legal placement through adoption or foster care, plus medical or hospital verification. Get the provider’s section finished before you submit. Incomplete applications are the single most common reason payments get delayed, and chasing a doctor’s office for paperwork afterward can push you past the 30-day deadline.

Once the DLT has a complete application, processing usually takes two to three weeks. You’ll get a written approval or denial by mail. Payments go out through a debit card or direct deposit.

If Your Claim Is Denied

You have the right to appeal. TDI and TCI appeals follow the same process as unemployment insurance disputes. A Referee holds a hearing that works like an informal trial: parties are sworn in, testimony is taken, and the Referee decides based on the evidence presented, independent of the original denial.⁹ A written decision follows within 10 days.

If the Referee rules against you, you can take it to the three-member Board of Review within 15 days of the mailing date on the Referee’s decision. That appeal has to be in writing, submitted by mail, fax, or online filing.⁹ Most TCI denials come down to incomplete medical documentation or missed deadlines rather than real eligibility disputes, so a complete, well-documented claim filed on time is the best way to avoid getting there.

What It Costs You

TCI isn’t employer-funded. Workers pay for it through payroll deductions that also fund TDI.⁴ For 2026, the rate is 1.1% of wages on your first $100,000 of earnings in the calendar year, so the maximum anyone pays in is $1,100.¹⁰ Your employer withholds it automatically. There’s no opt-in and no separate signup.

1
RI Department of Labor and Training. Temporary Disability / Caregiver Insurance
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RI Department of Labor and Training. TDI / TCI For Employers
3
Rhode Island General Assembly. Rhode Island General Laws 28-41-35 – Benefits
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RI Department of Labor and Training. Temporary Disability Insurance and Temporary Caregiver Insurance Pamphlet
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RI Department of Labor and Training. 2025 UI and TDI Quick Reference
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RI Department of Labor and Training. Temporary Disability Insurance (TDI) and Temporary Caregiver Insurance (TCI) FAQs
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RI Department of Labor and Training. For TDI / TCI Claimants
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RI Department of Labor and Training. TDI Application Packet
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RI Department of Labor and Training. Appeal Process
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RI Department of Labor and Training. 2026 Tax Rates for Unemployment Insurance and Temporary Disability Insurance