Frequently Asked Questions

The Program cannot provide financial assistance that duplicates benefits you’ve already received from other sources for the same loss. This means if you have already been awarded funds from FEMA, SBA, insurance, or another program, the Program must take those into account when calculating your award. You must disclose any financial assistance you’ve received related to the disaster.

Common sources of Duplication of Benefits may include repair/replacement funding from FEMA, Small Business Loans (SBA) loans, homeowners/fire or flood insurance payouts, assistance from nonprofit, and other state and local disaster recovery programs.

If your disaster-related damage totals $100,000, you cannot receive $100,000 each from FEMA, SBA, and the Program. That would be considered a Duplication of Benefits. You may only receive up to $100,000 total from all sources of assistance.

From the same example as above, if FEMA provided $50,000 and SBA provided $25,000, the Program may provide up to $25,000. Together, this adds up to the full $100,000 in documented damage.

You must disclose any financial assistance you’ve received related to the disaster. The Program will review your documents and cross-check with third-party records to confirm. The Program determines how much of your prior assistance is considered duplicative and deducts that from your award calculation.

If you applied for a subsidized loan, such as a SBA Home Loan, but the loan was declined or cancelled, the undisbursed loan amount is not considered a Duplication of Benefits. However, this exception only applies if the applicant can provide documentation confirming the loan (or part of it) was declined or cancelled.

A declined loan is one that was approved or offered by a lender (like SBA), but you chose not to accept it and did not sign the loan documents. If the County becomes aware that you were offered an SBA loan but cannot confirm whether you accepted it, you may be asked to provide a signed written certification confirming that you did not sign the loan documents and you did not receive any loan funds.

A cancelled loan refers to a loan (or portion of a loan) that you initially accepted (by signing the loan documents), but the lender later did not disburse some or all of the funds, and those funds are no longer available to you. To exclude the cancelled loan amount from the Duplication of Benefits calculation, one of the following must be provided:

• A written communication from the lender (e.g., SBA) confirming that the loan, or undisbursed portion, has been cancelled and is no longer available, OR
• A legally binding agreement between you and the County of Maui stating that the loan funds are no longer available, and that you agree not to reinstate or draw additional funds from the loan.

Yes. If you used funds from insurance or a subsidized loan, such as a SBA Home Loan, to voluntarily pay down or pay off your mortgage, those funds are still considered a Duplication of Benefits. The only exception is when the mortgage payoff was involuntary. For example, if your mortgage company required the payoff and they took control of the funds directly. In those cases, because the applicant did not have legal control over the use of the funds, it is not considered a Duplication of Benefits.