Premium Pay Payouts Reach Completion: $29 Million in Pandemic Relief Delivered

The Office of Management and Budget Director, Jenifer O'Neal, testified before the Senate Committee on Budget, Appropriations, and Finance on Tuesday, announcing that all applications for pandemic-era stimulus funds have now been processed.

Ms. O'Neal reported that the latest batch of Premium Payments, totaling $799,000, had been distributed to 341 private sector employees and 124 government employees. With this disbursement, the overall total reaches $29,236,250 paid to 16,015 eligible workers, and no further payments under the program are expected.

The stimulus funds were part of the American Rescue Plan Act, which allocated nearly half a billion dollars to provide economic relief for struggling businesses and residents in the territory. The USVI Premium Pay Program was established in 2022, setting aside $40 million of the $547 million awarded to the territory. Payments ranged from $500 to $2,000 for eligible workers based on their salary threshold and the volume of essential work performed during the pandemic.

In addition to the Premium Pay Program, Ms. O'Neal highlighted that Social Security recipients and taxi operators had been identified as populations experiencing additional hardships due to the pandemic. As a result, Governor Albert Bryan established a program to provide $500 stipend payments to Social Security recipients and $1,000 grants to eligible taxi operators, both funded by the ARPA. With the assistance of the Department of Finance, OMB has disbursed $10,530,000 to approximately 21,060 Social Security recipients and $821,000 to 821 taxi drivers.