Press Release: Today, Kenneth R. Feinberg, Administrator of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, released an executive summary looking back at its first year of operation with an update on claims statistics, successes and changes that have strengthened the program since its inception last August 23, 2010.
“The GCCF has largely succeeded in its primary objective—to compensate those individuals and businesses who can demonstrate financial harm due to the Oil Spill. The compensation program has not been perfect; but several midcourse corrections have been made in an effort to deal with the constructive criticism offered by victims of the Spill, public officials, and others,†states the executive summary.
Highlights of the summary include:
· Over $5 billion has been distributed to 204,434 claimants; over 350,000 claims have been honored by the GCCF.
· In just one year, the GCCF has received almost 1 million claims from all 50 states, as well as 36 foreign countries. The GCCF has processed 97% of these claims; with few exceptions, the GCCF claims process is current. As a general rule, the only claims remaining to be processed by the GCCF are those claims recently submitted within the past 60-90 days. Just in the past three months, the GCCF has received 61,558 new claims, submitted at the average rate of almost 4,400 claims per week.
· The fact that the GCCF has “processed†virtually all of the current inventory of claims does not mean that all of these claims have been paid. The breakout is as follows:
A. 947,892 claims received by the GCCF
B. 359,441 claims paid
· Emergency Payments= $2,583,413,488.07
· Quick Payments= $1,212,705,000.00
· Final Payments= $901,301,057.23
· Interim Payments= $296,871,189.31
C. 430,000 claims denied
D. 25,000 claims deemed by the GCCF to be deficient, lacking proof in order for the claim to be processed
E. 23,559 Final & Interim offers to claimants currently pending (90 days for claimants to respond from the time the offers are made)
· The $5 billion which has been paid to date by the GCCF can further be broken down by state as follows:
A. Alabama— 53,681 claims paid totaling $862,643,555.02
B. Florida— 150,920 claims paid totaling $2,017,086,318.87
C. Louisiana— 115,702 claims paid totaling $1,518,921,642.54
D. Mississippi— 30,193 claims paid totaling $387,278,996.73
E. All others— 8,945 claims paid totaling $262,794,796.20
The summary also outlines the steps GCCF has taken to make the claims process more user-friendly by implementing important procedures to assist claimants in the filing and processing of their claims. The report can be found attached and at www.gulfcoastclaimsfacility.com
***
“By agreement between the Administration and BP, a claims process will remain in place until August 2013. Claimants will decide the appropriate timing for filing claims. The GCCF will continue to seek improvements to the existing process and will pay claimants seeking Interim Payments, Quick Payments or Final Payments who can prove their losses were caused by the spill. The GCCF is determined to implement its mandate to provide quick and generous compensation to all the victims of the Oil Spill who can substantiate that their damages were linked to the Oil Spill. As the GCCF commences its second year of processing claims, it will continue to work with claimants and other interested parties in providing critically needed financial assistance to individuals and businesses in the Gulf region.â€