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Last Modified on Sep 03, 2026
Arizona raised the dependent allowance on temporary total disability checks from $25 a month to $100 a month, and the change is recent enough that most of the internet still hasn’t caught up.
That increase didn’t happen on its own. Weston Montrose, a founding partner at Arizona Injury Law Group, sits on the Public Policy Committee for the Arizona Association of Lawyers for Injured Workers. He was part of the group of attorneys who pushed to get this exact allowance raised for years.
If you’re supporting a spouse or child while you’re out of work, the firm that helped fight for this increase can check whether your claim is applying the correct rate.
Key Takeaways
- Arizona’s dependent allowance on temporary total disability quadrupled, from $25 to $100 a month, for claims filed on or after September 26, 2025
- The $100 is a flat monthly total, not a per-dependent amount, so a worker with one child and a worker with three kids and a spouse both get the same $100 bump
- Whether you get $25 or $100 depends on your claim’s filing date with the Industrial Commission of Arizona, not on when your injury happened
- A surprising number of guides, including some maintained by insurance and legal sites, still list the old $25 figure
- Arizona Injury Law Group PLLC in Phoenix represents injured workers across the state and can check whether your claim is applying the correct rate
What Changed Under Arizona Law
Arizona’s dependent allowance on temporary total disability benefits went from $25 a month to $100 a month under A.R.S. § 23-1045(A)(2). That’s the extra amount added on top of your regular wage-replacement check if you have a spouse, child, or anyone else who depends on you financially while you’re unable to work.
The increase came through Senate Bill 1551, passed during the 2025 legislative session. It’s a flat monthly figure, meaning it doesn’t scale with the number of dependents you have. One dependent or five, the allowance adds the same $100 to your monthly benefit, not a per-person amount stacked on top.
For a worker whose average monthly wage puts them near Arizona’s statutory cap, an extra $75 a month might sound small. For a worker closer to minimum wage supporting a family on a reduced check, it can be the difference between covering a utility bill and falling behind.
Why You’re Still Seeing the Old $25 Figure
Search for this topic right now, and you’ll find plenty of pages, some from insurance sites, some from personal injury guides, and even from other Arizona law firms, quoting the $25 figure as current fact. That’s not because anyone’s trying to mislead you. It’s because the change happened recently, and a lot of published content simply hasn’t been updated since.
This is exactly the kind of gap Briana Chua, one of the firm’s founding partners, has flagged to clients directly.
She’s noticed that adjusters, other attorneys, and even injured workers themselves are still working off the old number, months after it stopped being accurate. If your claims adjuster quotes you $25, that’s not necessarily bad faith. It might just mean nobody’s updated their internal reference sheet yet.
Likewise, a worker who assumes the $100 rate applies to an older claim, one filed before the law changed, is going to be disappointed when the math comes back different from what they expected online.
Who Qualifies for the Dependent Allowance
The allowance applies specifically to temporary total disability, meaning you’re not working at all while you recover from a work injury. To qualify, you generally need:
- A spouse, child, or other person who depends on you for financial support
- An open temporary total disability claim with the Industrial Commission of Arizona
- A claim filing date that falls on or after the law’s effective date
The allowance doesn’t apply to temporary partial disability, where you’re back at reduced or light-duty work, or to permanent disability calculations, which run on a different formula entirely. The Industrial Commission of Arizona oversees these claims statewide and is the agency that ultimately processes the payment calculation.
How the Filing Date Decides Your Rate
Your rate isn’t determined by when you got hurt. It’s determined by when your claim was legally filed with the state. That’s an important distinction, because an injury and a filing don’t always happen on the same day.
The relevant date is either when the Industrial Commission receives your claim paperwork or when your employer’s insurance carrier formally acknowledges the claim, whichever creates the official record first. Claims filed on or after September 26, 2025 qualify for the $100 allowance, according to the Commission’s own claims bulletin. Claims filed before that date remain at $25, even if the underlying injury happened around the same time.
That gap matters most for workers who delayed filing, whether from confusion about the process, pressure from an employer, or simply not realizing they had a claim to make. A few weeks’ difference in filing date can change your dependent allowance by $75 a month for as long as you’re on temporary total disability.
Behind the Push to Raise the Allowance
The $25 figure had sat untouched for years, long enough that it stopped reflecting anything close to the real cost of living for a family missing a paycheck.
Getting it raised through Senate Bill 1551 was part of the ongoing work of AALIW’s Public Policy Committee, and Weston’s involvement with that committee’s legislative efforts goes back years, not just this session.
None of that means the fight is over. Arizona’s workers’ comp statutes get revisited regularly, and allowances that don’t automatically adjust for inflation tend to fall behind again over time. Weston, along with Briana and Ben, are each Board-Certified Specialists in workers’ compensation through the State Bar of Arizona, the kind of credential that comes from years spent in front of the same commission this allowance runs through.
What To Do If Your Payment Still Shows $25
If your claim was filed on or after September 26, 2025, and your check still reflects the old $25 allowance, a few things could be happening:
- Your adjuster may be working from outdated internal guidance
- Your claim’s official filing date may be recorded differently than you expect
- The correction may simply not have processed yet
Whatever the reason, don’t assume a smaller check means you’re not entitled to more. A Phoenix workers’ compensation attorney at Arizona Injury Law Group PLLC reviews claim files for exactly these kinds of calculation errors, and a quick look at your filing date and payment history can usually settle the question fast.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the $100 allowance apply to my claim if I was injured before September 2025?
It depends on when you filed your claim, not when you were hurt. If the filing date falls on or after September 26, 2025, you’re eligible for the new rate. If it falls before, the older $25 amount applies to your claim.
Do I need to file paperwork to start getting the new rate?
No separate application exists for the dependent allowance itself. It’s calculated automatically as part of your temporary total disability payment once your claim qualifies, though errors do happen and it’s worth double-checking.
Is the $100 paid per dependent, or is it a flat amount?
It’s flat. One dependent and five dependents both add the same $100 to the monthly benefit. The law is written so the total allowance doesn’t grow with family size.
What if my adjuster insists the rate is still $25?
Ask for the reasoning in writing and check your claim’s official filing date. If the numbers don’t line up with what state law requires, that’s worth a second opinion from a Phoenix workers’ compensation attorney who handles these calculations regularly.
Does this change affect permanent disability or death benefits too?
No. The increase applies specifically to the dependent allowance on temporary total disability. Permanent disability and death benefit calculations follow separate statutes and weren’t changed by this update.
Arizona Injury Law Group: Your Phoenix Workers’ Compensation Law Firm
A dependent allowance mix-up is a small line item until it’s your family’s grocery budget. Weston, Briana, and the rest of the team built their practice around catching details an overworked adjuster might miss, and an injured worker can’t afford to overlook.
If you’re unsure whether your claim reflects the current $100 rate, or you’re facing a workers’ comp denial that goes beyond one line item, a quick claim review usually clears things up (and shows whether anything you may be owed has been missed). Contact our firm today and let someone who tracks these statutes for a living take a look.
