“Things have definitely been hard for my family. I am behind (on my) bills and my cars just broke down,” he said Wednesday.
When his fellow hotel workers started getting their unemployment benefits, but he did not, he started getting worried. He went for an in-person appointment with the Guam Department of Labor in June to address any concerns with his Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claim.
“I’m hoping to get it as soon as possible. I don’t see why mine has taken this long,” he said, although he understands that GDOL is working to help so many others.
David Dell’Isola, director of GDOL, on Wednesday said workers should be receiving unemployment assistance starting early next week.
That’s despite a one-day delay in the batching of the latest claims.
A Guam Department of Labor employee checks the temperature of a Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claimant before she enters the Yona branch of the Guam Public Library on Aug. 12, while another claimant waits his turn. Photo by Haidee Eugenio Gilbert/The Guam Daily Post
Dell’Isola said the batching that was initially set for Tuesday evening was moved to Wednesday night, to address two additional fraud-detection measures that are customized for Guam.
“It’s a constant battle of finding out which fraud measures work, and which ones don’t,” Dell’Isola told The Guam Daily Post.
Next week’s payments, will cover new cleared claims filed through July 14, Dell’Isola said. It’s the weekly claims payments that have been constantly changing, he said.
Labor has detected increased fraudulent unemployment claims, mostly from outside Guam, in recent weeks, which caused delays in payments for legitimate claims.
Lisa Roponei, who was furloughed March 15, said she has not received any unemployment assistance and is hoping her unemployment aid will be included in the next batch of payments.
As a single mother, she said, it’s been extra challenging. She’s thankful her landlord is understanding enough because they’re behind on rent and other bills. She also applied for food stamps, she said.
“I owe a lot of money to my landlord and I’m depending on my PUA, which he knows I’ll be receiving but it’s just taking so long,” she said, after she thought the issue with her claims was resolved during an in-person appointment at the Yona library Aug. 4.
The next batch of PUA payments will start using a portion of the $185 million in the second allotment from the U.S. Department of Labor that became available Monday night.
Dell’Isola said work has begun to request a third allotment from U.S. DOL. For Guam’s unemployment program, Dell’Isola requested a budget of $924 million, of which $461 million was released to the island.
Nearly 30,000 of more than 35,700-plus workers directly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic have already received more than $270 million worth of unemployment benefits since the payments were started.
