BP Claims – 26,000 Claims Filed, Only 1,200 Paid by Kenneth Feinberg BP Fund
Kenneth Feinberg, head of the new Gulf Coast Claims Facility, spent the last two months promising everyone who would listen that he would process BP claims faster, fairer and more generously than BP. But after Mr. Feinberg took over the BP claims process on August 23, 2010, some people found that they couldn’t tell any difference. Feinberg admitted at the Southern Governors’ Association meeting on Sunday that his office had received 18,900 claims from individuals, and 7,400 claims from businesses, but had paid only 1,200 individuals.
Kenneth Feinberg BP Fund Performance “Not Acceptable”
Kenneth Feinberg acknowledged that his office’s performance was “not acceptable.” And it’s hard to argue with that assessment. Feinberg has been telling people that individual claims will be paid within 48 hours of receiving documentation of the losses. He’s promised that businesses will be paid within 7 days. But some television and newspaper reports indicate those timetables aren’t being met, and that the GCCF is losing documentation, much as BP allegedly did in the past.
Claimants are also raising questions about the amount of money the Gulf Coast Claims Facility is paying. Kenneth Feinberg had promised to pay 6 months’ of lost income. That was part of his promise to be “more generous than BP.” BP had paid only one month’s lost income at a time, and people expected Feinberg’s checks to be much larger. But a Press-Register article Monday reported that the GCCF’s first 1,200 checks averaged only $5,000 each, while BP’s checks had averaged $3,200 each. Feinberg was unable to explain why the GCCF’s checks were so small. People who were expecting checks six times larger than BP’s $3,200 checks had to be disappointed.
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Full disclosure of the calculation method would go a long way in creating credibility. I have not seen that done, and have specificially asked 2 Ken Feinberg representatives that and they said that cannot be provided. How can you object when no one will provide the way compensation is calculated? This is math, not voodoo come on!
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