Previous Story
‘12,800 applicants will be eligible for 2nd round of PUA’
|
Posted on Apr 08 2021
A total of 12,800 applicants for the second round of the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance/Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation will be eligible, according to Labor Secretary Vicky Benavente.
In an interview with Benavente, she said DOL has been carefully looking over the 12,800 applications, which “looks like they will all be eligible.”
“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,” said Benavente. An estimated $90 million of PUA disbursements will be made within the next several weeks.
According to Saipan Tribune archives, DOL reported that 13,801 PUA applicants were found eligible last Dec. 28, 2020. This time around, Benavente said those numbers have dropped to 12,800 because most have either gone back to work, have part-time or full-time schedules, did not apply for PUA, or have relocated to the U.S. mainland.
As for the first round of PUA, Benavente said there are 1,900 applicants who remain pending for the first round but 99% of those applicants are deemed 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 those were repeatedly flagged as fraudulent claims [that were] given over to our partners in the integrity data hub, so that they have a list of names and possible addresses to investigate for fraudulent claims,” said Benavente.
She said DOL is working to make sure that it follows all the guidelines that were presented by federal partners, which helps them make sure they show proof that DOL is doing all they can to prevent fraudulent claims.
For those who have yet to receive their benefit payments, Benavente encourages applicants to go up to the PUA headquarters on Capital Hill, building 1334, between 8am and 3pm.
According to the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the PUA program has been extended, with modifications, from March 14 to Sept. 6.
