KOROR (Palau Horizon) – The U.S. Department of the Interior has agreed to provide Palau with $250,000 for some 600 Palauan beneficiaries who have not received their Prior Service checks since March.
Vice President Sandra Pierantozzi said the U.S. government promised the money during the annual consultation in Washington, D.C.
However, she said the funds are available only “to bridge the gap between now and September.”
She said Palau should still lobby the U.S. government for the full appropriation of Prior Service benefits.
In February, the Prior Service Trust Fund Administration notified Palau that it would hold the benefit checks every other month beginning in March until the U.S. government allocated funding.
The Prior Service Trust Fund Administration is a U.S.-funded agency based on Saipan and is responsible for issuing benefit checks for about 3,000 beneficiaries all over the Micronesian region.
The beneficiaries served the U.S. Departments of Defense and the Interior from 1944 to 1968.
Prior Service projected insufficient funds to sustain the benefits since funding is about to run out in July this year.
The agency has to hold benefit checks for May, July, September and November until the appropriation becomes available in October if the U.S. Congress would pass the budget.
The Social Security Administration earlier said that Prior Service had to have $75,000 per month to pay out the benefits.
