The CNMI Department of Labor will automatically deny Pandemic Unemployment Assistance applications submitted by individuals who classify as \u201ccontract workers\u201d\u2014a rule that presumably extends to the Commonwealth\u2019s foreign contract workers, referred to as CW-1 workers.<\/p>\n
In an interview with Labor Secretary Vicky Benavente, she said that individuals who applied for PUA and classify as \u201ccontract workers,\u201d their application will be denied upon DOL\u2019s review.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have a system where we check the status of the contract worker. What we do is check and see if they\u2019re legally here and if they fall under any of the qualified alien status. If they don\u2019t fall under any of those qualifying alien criteria, we would deem the application as denied,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Benavente added that since the CNMI-Only Transitional Worker program is not included as a qualified alien and usually classify as a contract worker, then their applications will be denied<\/p>\n
\u201cCW is not included under the qualified alien. We will review the application and if they are classified as a contract worker, CW-1, then, yes, they will be denied,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
When asked if there was any updates from the Office of Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP), Benavente said there has been no new updates. <\/p>\n
\u201cNo update at this time. I was informed by the office of Kilili that they did write to U.S. DOL and they\u2019re really trying and we advocate for that,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n
Delay in PUA payments <\/strong><\/p>\n Benavente said there is still a delay in the CNMI\u2019s distribution of PUA payments because a DOL review found that majority of the applications were either incomplete or not filled out correctly.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are inputting over 5,000 applications, both online and through hard copy, and majority of these applications are incomplete or were filled out incorrectly. It\u2019s understandable since we\u2019re all new to this pandemic, so if an application is complete it would be a miracle,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n Benvente cannot promise when the first payment will be out but she assures that once an application passes their system, that application will be sent directly to the Department of Finance and a payment will be processed and sent out within seven to 10 days. <\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want to promise anything. I\u2019m the last person to see the application, but my staff are all hard at work, typing in data and information in regards to each applicant and we have to be really careful because of the sensitivity of this program. We might risk not being able to get any more grant opportunities. Once we input an application and it is complete\u2026it should be processed and a check should be ready to go to the bank in seven to 10 days after the application is approved,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n What is PUA<\/strong><\/p>\n The PUA program provides temporary benefits to individuals whose employment or self-employment has been lost or interrupted as a direct result of COVID-19.\u00a0Direct result means loss of employment or self-employment because of a reason directly related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The PUA program, in general, provides up to 39 weeks of unemployment benefits.<\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Labor oversees the PUA program and reimburses the CNMI Department of Labor for both the program administration and benefit payment costs.<\/p>\n What is FPUC<\/strong><\/p>\n Individuals who receive at least one dollar ($1) of PUA benefits for a week, will also receive an additional $600 supplemental payment under the FPUC program described under section 2104 of the CARES Act. However, the time period that a claimant can receive the FPUC supplemental payment is more limited than the duration of the PUA payments. For the CNMI, FPUC is payable only for weeks of unemployment beginning on or after March 29, 2020. FPUC is not payable to any individual for any week of unemployment occurring after July 31, 2020.<\/p>\n Who can qualified<\/strong><\/p>\n PUA and FPUC are available to citizens of the United States, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, the CNMI, Guam, Republic of Palau, the Federated States of Micronesia, American Samoa, Republic of the Marshall Islands, and qualified aliens who reside and work in the CNMI who became unemployed, unable to work, or not available to work as a direct result of the COVID-19 public health emergency.<\/p>\n Individuals who are self-employed, those seeking part-time employment, or individuals who were about to start a job but could not begin work because of COVID-19 are also eligible for PUA and FPUC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The CNMI Department of Labor will automatically deny Pandemic Unemployment Assistance applications submitted by individuals…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":325377,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-326119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326119\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/325377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}