HAGÅTÑA (The Guam Daily Post) — Guam awaits further guidance on how the prolonged issue of more than $23.3 million in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance overpayments should be handled, especially if it goes beyond the expected June 2022 PUA administrative closeout date.
The Guam Department of Labor has been challenged trying to recoup most of what was initially $31 million in overpayments due since last year.
Since June 2020, more than $808.3 million in PUA and related benefits has gone out to workers who were laid off, furloughed or had their hours cut as the Covid-19 pandemic slammed the Guam economy.
But hundreds of applicants also were issued notices saying they received more than they should have, or received amounts they shouldn’t have gotten in the first place.
David Dell’Isola, GDOL director, said PUA overpayments totaled more than $30.968 million as of November, and over $5 million has been paid back so far.
An example of PUA overpayment is when a worker received PUA and also benefited from the Paycheck Protection Program.
It’s also possible that a former employer disagreed with the claim amount, or the claimant made inadvertent errors in filing a claim.
Federal rules require that states and territories recoup overpayments, while also allowing them to grant waivers for overpayments if a worker wasn’t at fault, among other reasons.
To date, GDOL has waived more than $2.6 million in PUA overpayments, Dell’Isola said.
This leaves GDOL with $23,303,881.27 in PUA overpayments, as of November, that it needs to collect, he said.
“But we are not a collection agency, so we’ve been asking for guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor on this,” Dell’Isola told The Guam Daily Post.
Of the $23.3 million in receivables, about 53%, or $12.33 million has been outstanding for more than 120 days, while more than $4.3 million has been outstanding for 31 to 60 days, GDOL data shows. The rest is outstanding for a month or more.
Dell’Isola said he expects to complete all work related to PUA adjudication, appeals and waiver requests by March, except for the overpayments.
“Now, the only thing that would be left would be the overpayments that need to be collected,” he said.
Some 30,000 PUA claims have been filed since May 2020. PUA payments have kept these claimants from hunger and homelessness, and put money in their pockets.
While $23.3 million is a huge amount that Guam’s PUA recipients have yet to pay back, that’s only 3.83% of total benefits disbursed, whereas overpayments in a number of states have reached more than 40% of total benefits paid out, Dell’Isola said, based on his communications with federal officials.
In states where there are unemployment insurance programs, overpayments can be offset from future benefits if claimants need unemployment assistance once again.
But, in Guam, there is no existing unemployment insurance program except for PUA, which was developed within a few weeks in response to the Covid-19 crisis.
Payments continue
Meanwhile, GDOL continues to batch PUA claims for payment every two weeks, but at a fraction of the amount paid out at the height of pandemic unemployment.
On Dec. 21, the claims reached a new low of about $90,000, Dell’Isola said.
Prior to that, on Dec. 7, the claims were at $172,566.83, with $9,442 in withholding taxes, Dell’Isola said.
Months into the pandemic in 2020, PUA and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation payments reached some $25 million every two weeks.
GDOL released the first batch of PUA and FPUC checks in June 2020, amounting to $35 million.
But the department also has been hit with fraudulent filings that resulted in delays of some payments until the fraudulent applications were weeded out of legitimate claims.
GDOL offices move to GCIC Building
One of the things also keeping GDOL busy the past several weeks is the relocation and consolidation of all its units or divisions to the GCIC Building in Hagåtña.
Dell’Isola said the tentative date for the completion of the relocation and consolidation is the end of January.
All GDOL units at the Bell Tower building will join other offices at the GCIC building. The five-year lease at the Bell Tower ends this year, and GCIC offered the lowest bid, Dell’Isola said.
Depending on their functions, the GDOL units will be located on the third, fourth or eighth floors of the GCIC building.
Dell’Isola said the American Jobs Center and related programs will be on the third floor; enforcement units, such as the Wage and Hour Division, will be on the fourth floor; and administrative services, accounting and the director’s office will be on the eighth floor.
A Guam Department of Labor Pandemic Unemployment Assistance processing center is show in March 2021.
