The sometimes complex task of paying for those whose livelihood have been lost due to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has now begun, and BP (NYSE:BP) has already paid out about 9,000 claims, out of a total of 23,000 business owners and workers have made.
For those waiting to see which way things are going to go, and are without income, the payments have reached $27.8 million. A total of 420 claims adjusters are available in the four affected states of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi.
The focus in the beginning has been on "immediate hardship," said BP spokesman David Nicholas. That means they're paying for a months salary to help out right away.
Some who may get hit the hardest are the newer fishing businesses, who have no way of knowing what their businesses were going to make this year, and have no history to fall back on for claims adjusters to have a guideline to follow.
Many are saying it was going to be a great year, but that's of course an assertion that now can't be proven.
It'll be easier in some ways for those that have been in business for years, but on the other hand, the larger the claims they make the more complex and time consuming they'll be, and there will have to be documentation to back up the amount the claims are asking for.
One of the most obvious requirements is tax records, which the last 3 years are being asked for from those that have been around awhile.
For newcomers, they're probably going to be hurting more than others, in the sense they can only project what they thought they were going to make, and it has yet to be seen whether that will fly with BP.
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