CNMI Department of Labor Secretary Vicky I. Benavente on Friday said of the roughly $700 million in federal funding for local unemployment benefits, the Commonwealth has provided $230 million to eligible applicants.
This is for all three rounds of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, the Continued Assistance Act, and the American Rescue Plan Act.
The PUA program came to an end on Saturday, Sept. 4.
However, Benavente said the submission of claims and applications has been extended to October.
Last week, CNMI DOL paid out more than $4 million to over 500 PUA claimants, covering over 5,000 weekly claims.
CNMI DOL expects to still pay out thousands of PUA claims.
“I believe [that] there are many people continuing to submit weekly claims. We had a few actually submitting initial claims, meaning there are claimants reporting that they have just lost their jobs,” Benavente said.
Approximately 1,000 claimants are still waiting for their PUA benefits, with a majority of them waiting for the second and/or third round of the unemployment benefits, Benavente said.
Since the program was launched in March 2020, CNMI DOL has received more than 40,000 applications of which about 10,000 were deemed eligible and were paid out.
“We’re estimating that around 9,000 to 10,000 PUA claimants in the CNMI, including Tinian and Rota, have received PUA benefits between March 2020 to August 2021,” Benavente said. “These are claimants who have been deemed eligible regarding eligibility and completion of applications. We received close to 40,000 PUA applications, including fraudulent ones, but only around 10,000 were deemed eligible.”
She added, “People in our PUA team continue to adjudicate and resolve many issues from claimants who are submitting documents as quickly as they can so we can expedite their PUA claims.”
However, because the local economy has yet to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, Benavente said people continue to lose their jobs or are still unemployed.
“We were hoping for a bounce back fairly quickly due to the CNMI being the safest place in the world…but we’re still hearing that there is still a reduction in hours or complete furlough of employees in [local] businesses,” she added.
“The CNMI Department of Labor continues to do its part in mitigating the economic effects of the pandemic by processing PUA payments as quickly as possible while simultaneously keeping the integrity of the programs it administers intact,” Benavente said.
In addition to resolving claimant issues, including all unpaid claims, and working with claimants to provide necessary qualifying documents, CNMI DOL has been working with employers to accurately certify employment verifications, timesheets and check stubs for their employees, Benavente said.
All individuals with PUA claims inquiries are encouraged to email info@puamarianas.com or call 322-8870/1/2/3/4/6 for inquiries. (Hours of operation: Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., except on local or federal holidays).
Additional Department of Labor telephones are 664-3196 for Administrative Services, 664-3190/322-9934/664-3298 for the Division of Employment Services, 322-4365/323-9940 for Enforcement, 322-9943/9944 for Benefits Payments Control Unit, 989-9095 for the PUA Fraud Hotline, 664-3290/3291 for the Administrative Hearing Office, 664-3156/3157 for OSHA, and 664-1708/1757 for WIOA.
