New NAP benefits distribution schedule on Saipan

The CNMI Nutrition Assistance Program announced on Thursday that it will be extending the June distribution schedule for Saipan from five days to 10 days beginning on June 3, 2019.  

“The goal for this new schedule is to increase the efficiency of distribution for beneficiaries and reduce the longer wait time for recipients for picking up their benefits and for re-certifying their cases,” said Gov. Ralph DLG Torres. 

Approximately 3,206 families are currently participating in the program; 2,929 of these families are from Saipan.  

“The number of participating families has gradually increased over the course of the past two years, from 2,412 in March 2017 to 3,206 in March 2019,” said NAP administrator Walter Macaranas.

“As a result of the increase, recipients are experiencing longer wait time in order to receive their NAP coupon benefits and to re-certify their cases, nearly 600 [beneficiaries] each day for five days, which can no longer be accommodated.  This also presents longer work hours for NAP staff.

“To mitigate this situation, the NAP must extend the previous five days of distribution schedule to 10 days of distribution,” Macaranas said.
Also, the alphabet-based schedule will be discontinued beginning June 2019. 

NAP normally distributed benefits based on first letter of the head of household’s last name. For example, last names beginning with A to C, D to L, M to R, and S to Z will no longer be used. This means the rotation of schedules will also be discontinued.

Instead, the NAP will use a numeric schedule. This refers to the last number of the Case Record ID for the specific household. All Case Record IDs end with a numeric digit, for example B123456789. So, ‘9’ for example dictates the day the household will be allowed to pick up their benefits. In this case, 9 represents Day 9 for picking up their benefits and for renewing their cases, if their certification will be expiring during the benefit month. 

Accordingly, the new distribution schedule for Saipan is as follows for June 2019 and July 2019:

June 2019
June 3, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘1’
June 4, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘2’
June 5, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘3’
June 6, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘4’
June 7, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘5’
June 10, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘6’
June 11, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘7’
June 12 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘8’
June 13, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘9’
June 14, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘0’

July 2019
July 1, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘1’
July 2, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘2’
July 3, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘3’
July 5, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘4’
July 8, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘5’
July 9, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘6’
July 10, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘7’
July 11, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘8’
July 12, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘9’
July 15, 2019 Case Record ID ending with ‘0’

If a household is unable to come to the NAP office in As Lito to pick up their benefits on their scheduled date, they may come on any other day after Day 10, excluding holidays and weekends, to pick up their benefits but must do so before the end of the benefit month. 

The numeric scheduling will be the same for August 2019 and September 2019, which would be in the same sequence of Case Record ID ending with ‘1’ for Day 1 through Case Record ID ending with ‘0’ for Day 10. 

The NAP office solicits the patience and understanding of NAP participating families as they transition into the new schedules.  For more information, contact the NAP office at 237-2842 or 237-2843 or visit its new Facebook page at www.facebook.com/nap.cnmi to view the revised distribution schedules. (PR)