$33M PUA, FPUC overpayments collected

Leila Staffler

The CNMI Department of Labor has collected to date $33 million in total overpayments in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance funds.

Speaking at the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee’s hearing on Labor’s proposed 2024 budget last Wednesday, Labor Benefit Payment Control auditor Vince Sablan said they have collected $15,963,000 in PUA overpayments to date and $17,772,000 million in PFUC overpayments—for a total of $33,735,000 in overpayments.

Sablan said the collection is based on overpayments, intercepted payments due to fraud, out-of-state address, or incorrect payments.

As to the how much overpayments Labor has to collect in all, the Labor official said they can’t tell because the auditing team don’t just look at the supposed reported issues. “We do look at the claim overall. From the first date they claimed all the way through the last day they claimed,” he said.

Sablan said they just want to make sure that the benefits are being paid accurately, that there is no improper payments, that either overpaid or underpaid for wages that might have been overreported.

Sablan said the $33 million that have so far been collected are returned to the accounts where they came from so they don’t get spent or put into any other funding accounts.

He said it is a very rare instance when there are PUA 2 or 3 that were given and PUA 1 is still pending. That’s because, iIn order to get PUA 2 and 3 funding, they have to exhaust the previous accounts, or weeks they claim for, Sablan said.

“There may be possibilities that it does happen, but that’s a very rare case,” he said.

He said there is offsetting arrangement that can be done in case there are claimants that got overpaid in PUA 1 and are eligible for PUA 2 and 3.

Sablan said an option for recollection process is set out by the U.S. Department of Labor.

He said when they do their audits, they verify the whole claim that they are eligible for so they can get an accurate estimate of what they are entitled to and offer them the appropriate payment options.

Sablan said the option is either benefit deductions bi-weekly payments, or if they don’t agree with their determinations, they have the option to go to the hearing office to get to another course to see if they are qualified.

Labor Secretary Leila Staffler told the Ways and Means Committee that the PUA Program was extended to next June 2024.

“So we have one year extension to complete the current processing that we have on hand,” Staffler said.

She said they have a year to get the program done and they want to get it done within that period or sooner.

“We don’t want people to wait a year. We want to get it done,” the secretary said.

Staffler said she, however, can say that the PUA 1 numbers have dwindled down so they are mainly in the adjudicating phase.

“We are not adjudicating as many of the PUA 1 claimants at this time. And we are now more into the PUA 2 and beyond,” she said.