CNMI Department of Labor Secretary Vicky I. Benavente on Wednesday said 12,800 applicants may be eligible for the second round of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance/Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation.
CNMI DOL has been carefully vetting the 12,800 applications, Benavente said, noting that they all appear to be eligible for the second round of unemployment benefits.
“Most of these applicants have already submitted their documentation to update their employment status, copies of paychecks if needed, copies of time records, work records,” she said.
An estimated $90 million in PUA benefits will be disbursed within the next several weeks.
In December last year, CNMI DOL reported that 13,801 were eligible for the program.
This time around, Benavente said the numbers have dropped to 12,800, which may mean that some employees have returned to work either part-time or full-time.
It could also be because they have not applied for the second round of PUA, or perhaps have relocated outside the Commonwealth.
As for the first round of PUA, Benavente said there are 1,900 applications still pending, but 99% of them were deemed to be fraudulent claims.
“These are not people from the CNMI. These are people from outside of the CNMI who had IP addresses outside of the Commonwealth…[and] were repeatedly flagged as fraudulent claims,” she said.
The names and addresses that were deemed as fraudulent claims have been referred to the Integrity Data Hub, she added.
Secretary Benavente said CNMI DOL continues to ensure that it follows federal guidelines to help prevent fraudulent claims.
If an individual still has yet to receive his or her PUA benefits from the first round, CNMI DOL encourages that he or she contact and/or visit the PUA headquarters at Building 1334 on Capital Hill, on weekdays between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m.
According to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the PUA program has been extended, with modifications, and will run from March 14 to Sept. 6.
