“WE’RE ready,” said CNMI Department of Labor Secretary Vicky I. Benavente on Wednesday regarding the second round of unemployment benefits provided by the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
Benavente and her team appeared before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Government, Law and Federal Relations on Feb 3, 2021 to provide updates on the PUA and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation programs.
She said she is hopeful that U.S. DOL will approve CNMI’s funding request of $185 million, adding that these funds will benefit roughly 26,000 applicants.
Through the Continued Assistance Act, the second round of PUA will run from Dec. 27, 2020 through March 13, 2021.
Although the first round of PUA has closed, there are still a few applications being adjudicated, she added.
During its presentation to the Senate committee, the CNMI DOL reported that as of Jan. 31, 2021, for the first round of unemployment benefits, the CNMI received a total of $198,110,164 of the $239,145,876 that it had requested from the federal government.
Of this nearly $200 million, $86,574,600 was allocated for the PUA program, $109,555,000 for the FPUC program, and $1,980,564 for administration.
She said 37,092 applications were received of which 19,090 were CNMI applications. Of the 19,090, 13,996 were eligible and 12,501 have been paid.
She said 5,094 applications were potentially eligible pending further adjudication. Of this number, however, 2,113 applications were identified as fraudulent or non-CNMI claims, leaving a total of 2,981 potentially eligible CNMI claims.
Of the 2,981 potentially eligible claims, 1,659 have completed final adjudication while 1,322 claims are still pending final adjudication.
About 5,000 paper applications were reviewed, of which 4,795 were serviced or inputted.
A total of $183,289,666 in PUA or FPUC benefits have been paid, of which $92,216,640 went to the PUA program and $91,073,026 to the FPUC program.
Secretary Benavente said although CW-1s were ineligible for the first round of unemployment benefits, they are eligible for the second round.
Qualified foreign nationals also include non-citizens admitted for permanent residency under the Immigration and Nationality Act, foreign nationals granted asylum, and refugees.
A claimant is considered covered under the Continued Assistance Act if he or she is not eligible for regular unemployment compensation, extended benefits, or Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.
The covered individual may also self-certify that he or she is unemployed, partially unemployed, unable or unavailable to work as a direct result of a qualifying Covid-19 reason.
