As I mentioned in March, the Fire Victim Trust is increasing the pro rata payment percentage to 66% effective April 25, 2024. This means the Trust can distribute over $1.2 billion in additional payments to fire survivors. On April 25, 2024, the Trust will begin issuing 6% true-up payments, bringing prior payments up from 60% to 66%. After that, the Trust will pay all pro rata payments at 66% of the final award amount.
There is one critical condition for these payments to occur. Only claimants whose claims have been finalized and who have signed and submitted both releases will be eligible to receive this pro rata increase and future payments. While your next pro rata payment is not conditioned on whether other claimants have signed their releases, your payment is conditioned on whether you have signed your releases.
There will be at least one additional pro rata increase as we finalize the remaining claims, achieve certainty regarding the Trust’s total payment obligations, and wind down the program.
We encourage attorneys and pro se claimants to submit releases as soon as possible to ensure that we receive and have time to review your releases before finalizing the April 25 payment list. Payments to eligible claimants whose releases are not received in time for the April 25 disbursement will be included in the next payment cycle after the Trust receives and confirms their releases. As a reminder, the Trust issues payments twice monthly, generally on the 15th and on the last day of the month.
The Road to Completion
My latest video update (available here on the Trust website) discusses the releases, my most recent tax relief support letter, and current program statistics, and I wanted to share the statistics here with you here as well.
- Notices and Payments: 98% of determinations are now accepted and final with $11.27 billion paid to claimants.
There remain roughly 700 determination notices not yet accepted. These are in various stages of Reconsideration and Appeal. We continue working with attorneys and pro se claimants to move 100% of claims to acceptance and resolution without delay.
- Releases: The Trust has received signed releases from 80% of eligible claimants. We encourage all claimants to submit their releases before the April pro rata payment increase, as release submission is a prerequisite to payment going forward.
The Trust’s public website includes FAQs (here) regarding these required releases.
- Minors Compromises: The Honorable Ellen Sickles James (Ret.) was appointed Special Master to review claims determinations and disbursement measures for all awards to minors and incapacitated adults. We highlighted this process in an interview with Special Master James last year (available here). To streamline the process, we have increased the threshold for awards requiring a hearing via Zoom to $56,000 for represented claimants. As before, all pro se claimants get a hearing, and represented claimants whose awards are below $56,000 may request a hearing.
Roughly 2,900 claimants (39%) have completed the Special Master approval process. We encourage everyone still requiring approval to submit their petitions and initiate the process as soon as possible.
We are pleased to be able to increase the pro rata percentage and continue to work diligently to resolve claims and process payments to all qualifying claimants.
