More than 200,000 Hardship Assistance checks mailed out

WINDOW ROCK

Approximately 200,000 Hardship Assistance checks were mailed out on Jan. 18 in the first batch of approvals, the controller’s office reported Tuesday.

There are 293,000 applicants for the Navajo CARES Act Hardship Assistance Program. More than 112,000 checks have already been cashed.

And nearly 30,000 more checks scheduled to be mailed this week.

The controller’s office also reports more than 1,000 checks were returned because they could not be delivered through the U.S. Postal Service. Attempts will be made to get correct mailing addresses and the checks will be reissued.

As for the 370 duplicate checks, they were identified, voided, reissued, redelivered and most have been already presented for payment.

Pearline Kirk, controller of the Navajo Nation, asked applicants to continue to be patient.

“We will be issuing in excess of 30,000 more checks this week with corresponding text messages to let members know their checks are coming,” said Kirk. “Please refrain from calling until after these checks have gone out and text messages have been sent, which will take place this week.”

The Support Center is flooded with call volumes resulting in more than 1,000 application errors cleared each day leading to application approvals.

The Support Center continues to receive an overwhelming amount of phone calls from applicants checking on the status of their checks. As a result, phone communications with applicants that need to fix errors on their applications are delayed.

If applicants have received a text message update or been notified that their check has been mailed, they are urged not to call the Support Center.

More than 100 staff is handling nearly 4,000 calls per day with many more calls waiting in the queue at the end of the day, which require call-backs the next business day.

Applicants should only call the Support Center for application updates. The Support Center is the only entity that can answer any questions regarding the Hardship Assistance Program and calls to other offices and departments will only reroute you back to the Support Center.

If applicants have issues with a check, such as misspelling of their name or the check is damaged, they are urged to email NNCaresHelp@nnooc.org or call the Support Center at 1-833-282-7248 for further instructions.

To avoid fraud and counterfeit checks, you may be required to send the check back to the controller’s office before a new check can be issued.

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