The Economic Oversight Team informs the public that the online portal for the Unemployment Relief Program has been closed to new applications. The portal opened to receive applications on April 3, 2020 and up to the time of closure at 4:00 p.m. today, April 24th, a total of 81,007 applications were received.
Of this number, a total of 35,371 applications have been approved and 34,425 have been sent to the Social Security Board for payment to applicants. So far, a total of $3,460,300 has been paid to 28,574 approved applicants via direct deposit into their accounts or by top-up ATM cards. Payments that have been returned because of incorrect banking information are being reviewed. Applicants should continue to check online and follow the directions for providing correct information.
All submitted applications will continue to be processed and applicants can continue to check on the status of their applications by visiting www.covid19.bz. This includes those applicants who may have mistakenly received messages that their applications were ineligible. Those applications are being reviewed and some have already been approved for payment.
If it is determined that the portal should be re-opened to receive further applications, that decision will be announced when it is made.
