- Ayeza Díaz Rolón, EL VOCERO
- 27/08/2020
- https://www.elvocero.com/gobierno/ajuste-de-25-menos-a-beneficiarios-del-pan/article_1bfd3062-e80c-11ea-b926-abf79fefb82a.html
The income of the beneficiaries of the Nutrition Assistance Program (PAN) will drop by 25% next month because the funds allocated to the Island under the Cares Act and other federal aid that arose from the Covid-19 pandemic have already been exhausted.
This was confirmed to EL VOCERO by the acting deputy administrator of the Family Socioeconomic Development Administration (Adsef), Alberto Fradera, who reported that as a result of the coronavirus, PAN applications have reached historic levels on the island.
At the onset of the emergency, the Department of the Family received an allocation of $297 million through the Cares Act in order to meet the new requests.
"So far, we have had the funds (to meet the volume of applicants). However, the funds that were allocated under the Family First Coronavirus Response and Cares Act were available until July. We have already complied with the use of those funds and already by September our participants are going to be receiving the benefit that they had before the allocation of the $600 million that we had received for Hurricanes Irma and Maria. So in September, our participants will reach the basic benefit," Fradera said.
However, he anticipated that an improvement could be reflected in October, when the new federal fiscal year begins. "We will have a new budget and we estimate that our participants will receive an increase in monthly benefits because there is an additional special allocation in PAN funds," he said.
"We are awaiting confirmation from the federal government to then determine how much the benefit will be for these participants. Starting in October, the elimination of the percent cash for beneficiaries will also begin. As of October 1, 2020, our participants will be receiving 100% for food. Cash is eliminated," he added.
The new profile of PAN applicants, according to Fradera, is concentrated among single mothers and people who have lost their income during the emergency. He could not say how many of these new PAN beneficiaries or applicants sought assistance because they became unemployed during the pandemic.
The number of participants now totals 1.5 million, according to Adsef figures. "Before the emergency we had over 700,000 families and 1.3 million participants," he said.
"It is a historic number because since we have had the program in Puerto Rico we have never had so many people receiving the PAN benefit. The reality is that the pandemic has disrupted the daily lives of Puerto Ricans and many have become unemployed," the official added.
Fradera insisted on the need to pass legislation in the federal Congress to include Puerto Rico in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and obtain benefits similar to those of the states.
"This emergency process validates the importance of Puerto Rico moving to SNAP, and I say this because other jurisdictions in this emergency have not had to request additional funds to be able to attend to the thousands of people who have applied to receive these benefits. On the other hand, we depend on the allocation of additional funds to continue assisting our participants without inconveniences," Fradera affirmed.