For more than seven weeks, Jeannie Mathis has been waiting for a check from the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, the independent entity charged with doling out the money BP set aside to compensate victims of the gulf oil spill. And for seven weeks, her claim has been āunder review.ā
Shortly after the oil spill, sales at her Steinhatchee, Fla., nursery, which specializes in selling palm trees to beach-front hotels, plummeted more than 50 percent. Tourists, spooked by the prospect of oil-soaked beaches, stayed away from Floridaās Gulf Coast. In turn, hotel owners and other tourism-driven businesses lost money and sacrifices had to be made. As it turns out, one of the first things businesses cut was their landscaping budget.
āThe oil spill hit at the heart of our nursery season,ā Mathis said. āMy clients in Panama City Beach bought eight loads of trees before the spill and they havenāt bought a single load of trees since the spill. They all said things slowed way down because of the oil spill.ā
Mathis, who filed more than 300 pages of documentation to prove her claim, says sheās struggling to pay her bills and sheās over-drafted on her bank account. āIāve had the same bank account since I was 18 years old,ā she says. āI shouldnāt be in overdraft. I should have money in the bank.ā
Like many others along the gulf, Mathis says sheās been able to get very little information about her claim. The claims facility has noted no problems with her claim, nor has it asked for more documentation. Every time she calls to check on the status of her claim, she gets the same vague response: āItās under review.ā
āI know that the priorities have to go to the fisherman,ā Mathis says. āThey have to have helped first because they live from one paycheck to the next. But at some point, you have to get to the other people.ā
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As of Oct. 16, there were more than 48,700 claims marked āunder reviewā by the claims facility, according to theĀ latest statistics. Kenneth Feinberg, the independent administrator of the oil spill claims process,Ā has said that the majority of these claims have recently been filed and are being processed, pushing back against suggestions that people have been waiting more than a month for their claims to be reviewed.
But interviews conducted by The Washington Independent with claimants ā some who spoke on the record and some who asked not to be named ā indicate that at least some claims have been lingering since late August, when Feinberg took over as claims administrator, without a response from the claims facility. They also show that the lines of communication between the claimant and the claims facilityĀ are often nonexistent, leaving oil spill victims with little information about when they will receive a decision.
Amy Weiss, a spokeswoman for Feinberg, says that about 8,000 of the 48,700 claims still under review were filed before Oct. 1. āThere are only a small number of problematic claims going back to August or September,ā she says. Weiss also says the claims facilityĀ has not assigned extra staff members to look into claims that have been under review for weeks, though Feinberg has said he is considering hiring staff to answerĀ gulf residentsā claims questions.
Debra DeShong Reed, another Feinberg spokeswoman, adds that most claims filed in August and September that are still under review lack documentation may be fraudulent or are being reconsidered based on new, less stringent rules Feinberg established in recent weeks.
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Zade Marcie, who owns a fishing charter business in Little Sarasota Bay, Fla., says his claim has been under review since Aug. 28. Marcie, whose business lost money as spill-wary tourists canceled plans for fishing trips, says his interactions with the claims facility were often confusing and counterproductive.
Unclear about Feinbergās claims protocol, Marcie initially filed for a final, rather than an emergency, claim. Oil spill victims have until Thanksgiving to file for interim emergency payments. After Thanksgiving, they have till November 2012 to file for final payments. If claimants accept a final payment, they must agree not to sue BP for further damages.
It took three weeks for Marcrie to change his claim from a final to an emergency payment. During that time, Marcrie received conflicting information from claims facilityĀ staff. Even after reapplying for an emergency payment and being told the claims facilityĀ received his updated paperwork, Marcrie says he still got letters indicating he hadnāt yet filled out the necessary forms.
āItās obvious the left-hand doesnāt know what the right hand is doing,ā Marcrie says in an email. āBut when you consider how much better off myself and untold numbers of others would be had our claims been handled within a week itās actually pathetic.ā
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Darlene Gay-Allen, of Mobile, Ala., is about to get evicted from her home. She hasnāt been able to pay the rent since she lost her job as an administrative assistant at a subcontractor that was working with BP to clean up the oil spilled across the gulf. She was also promised work helping to clean up the spill, and later as a claims administrator at the claims facility. Neither of those jobs panned out, she says, even after she paid for the necessary equipment and a training course.
Gary Allen’s case is unusual because her losses came as a result of the work she was doing to clean up the oil spill. But she says the claims facility has continued to assure her that her claim is under review without giving her specific information about when she can expect a decision.
She filed with the claims facilityĀ in late August, days after Feinberg took over the process, and says her claim has been under review ever since. āI am to be evicted in a matter of days if I do not come up with the money,ā says Gay-Allen, who is surviving on $118 a week in unemployment payments. āIām 51 years old and Iāve been working since I was 17. Iāve never experienced anything like this.ā
Gay-Allen says the claims facility told her that it would expedite her claim because she is facing eviction. But another eviction notice came yesterday, and Gay-Allen says she doesnāt have much time. āIāve only got a matter days to get out of the house,ā she says. āI donāt have the money to move to another place. I donāt have any money to put my stuff in storage.ā
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Andy (who asked that his last name not be used so as not to jeopardize his claim) lost his job as an oil rig engineer in Louisiana after the Obama Administration imposed a temporary moratorium on deepwater drilling. As his savings dwindled (at one point he couldnāt pay rent or afford groceries), he spent days trying to figure out the status of his claim, only to be given mixed messages from claims facilityĀ staff.
After being told he was ineligible to receive payments through the claims facility, Andy applied for relief under a separate compensation fund for rig workers. He was told by staff at the rig workers fund that he is not eligible because he worked as a contractor. The claims facility then told him that the staff was mistaken, and his claim was reinstated as of Sept. 25. Since then, heās been told, it remains under review, but the status has not yet been officially charged in the claims facility database.
āSo whenever I call the GCCF, the first thing they tell me is that on Sept. 16 I was sent a letter informing me that I was ineligible,ā he says. āI then tell them to look further in the notes as the claim was reinstated. So after talking to the person for about 15 minutes or so they will then tell me that my claim is under review and they do not know when it will be further reviewed.ā
After struggling with the claims facilityĀ for more than a month, Andy is considering giving up. Heās moved to Oklahoma City, Okla., where heās found work at an onshore oil drilling project. And heās begun to save some money again.
His only other option, he says, is to hire an attorney, which could cost even more money and result in a lengthy court battle.
āIād almost rather just drop the claim rather than give 40 percent of what they give me to an attorney,ā he says.
