She said $42 million is for the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA, program, while the remaining $8 million is for the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, or FPUC, program.
Benavente said her department was notified in late October, which prompted the Department of Finance and CNMI DOL to issue payments for the month of September.
But she said several pandemic assistance applicants have also called the CNMI DOL to inquire about their checks and raised concerns about the delays.
“We are processing those payments as fast as possible,” Benavente said. “We just received additional funding, and I want to make sure that there’s enough for PUA as well as the remaining benefits for FPUC.”
In September, the Office of the Governor reported that as of Aug. 31, 2020, CNMI DOL had disbursed a total of $71.24 million in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation to eligible claimants in the Commonwealth.
Benavente said the number of claims submitted for September were lower than those submitted for October.
She said that there were about 5,000 claims for the month of September, and roughly 18,000 claims for the month of October.
This averages out to about 1,250 claims a week for September and 4,500 claims a week for October, Benavente added.
However, although there was an increase in the number of applications submitted and received in October, there was no increase in the benefits distribution that month.
$24 million was distributed to PUA applicants in September and $20 million was disbursed in October.
“While we saw an increased number of applications, we did not increase the number of distribution amount, and that could be because of the lesser amount of PUA claims,” she said.
Moreover, “some of the applicants have been disqualified because of their unemployment status. We’ve also intercepted about 1,000 PUA applicants that were fraudulent claims.”
She said every cent allocated to the CNMI for the PUA and FPUC programs is reported to the U.S. DOL and can only be used for pandemic assistance.
CNMI DOL submits weekly reports to the federal government indicating the number of applicants applying every week, as well as how much CNMI DOL is spending each week, she added.
The process is not as simple as clicking a button, Benavente said, adding that every single claim must be vetted carefully to avoid fraud.
CNMI DOL is also focusing on contacting individuals whose claims have yet to be addressed, she said.
Currently, CNMI DOL is not open to the public for in-person appointments until Dec. 1.
CNMI DOL said it suspended the in-person appointments so it can “proceed with claims adjudication for PUA applicants whose applications have not been processed due to errors or incomplete information; audit overpayments; conduct appeals; and for fraud detection purposes.”
