2023 Hawaii Revised Statutes
Title 21. Labor and Industrial Relations
386. Workers' Compensation Law
386-43 Duration of dependents' weekly benefits.

§386-43 Duration of dependents' weekly benefits. (a) The weekly benefits to dependents shall continue:

(1) To a surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary, until death, remarriage, marriage, or entry into a new reciprocal beneficiary relationship with two years' compensation in one sum upon remarriage, marriage, or entry into a new reciprocal beneficiary relationship;

(2) To or for a child:

(A) So long as unmarried, until attainment of the age of eighteen;

(B) So long as unmarried, until attainment of the age of:

(i) Twenty if the child is a full-time student at a high school, business school, technical school; or

(ii) Twenty-two if the child is a full-time undergraduate student at a college;

(C) So long as unmarried, until termination of the child's incapability of self-support; or

(D) Until marriage, except that in the case of a married child under eighteen, weekly benefits shall continue during the period of actual dependency until attainment of the age of eighteen;

(3) To a parent or grandparent, for the duration, whether continuous or not, of the actual dependency, provided that the amount of the weekly benefits shall at no time exceed the amount payable at the time of death; and

(4) To or for a grandchild, brother, or sister, for the period in which that grandchild, brother, or sister remains actually and wholly dependent until attainment of the age of eighteen or termination of the incapability of self-support.

(b) The aggregate weekly benefits payable on account of any one death shall not exceed the product of three hundred twelve times the effective maximum weekly benefit rate prescribed in section 386-31, but this limitation shall not apply with respect to benefits to a surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary who is physically or mentally incapable of self-support and unmarried as long as that surviving spouse or reciprocal beneficiary remains in that condition and to benefits to a child and to benefits to an unmarried child over eighteen incapable of self-support as long as that unmarried child is otherwise entitled to compensation.

(c) Upon the cessation under this section of compensation to or for any person, the benefits of the remaining dependents in the same class for any further period during which they are entitled to weekly payments shall be in the amounts which they would have received, had they been the only dependents entitled to benefits at the time of the employee's death. [L 1963, c 116, pt of §1; Supp, §97-42; am L 1966, c 6, §2; am L 1967, c 257, §2; HRS §386-43; am L 1974, c 151, §2 and c 153, §5; am L 1975, c 4, §1; gen ch 1985; am L 1997, c 383, §55; am L 2016, c 55, §14]

Case Notes

The date-of-death maximum weekly benefit rate should be used to calculate death benefits. 109 H. 255, 125 P.3d 476 (2005).

Part-time students, as defined by each individual educational institution, are not entitled to compensation under subsection (a) and §386-42(a). 84 H. 390 (App.), 935 P.2d 105 (1997).

Cited: 27 H. 431, 435 (1923).