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Oregon Employment Department
Here is an overview of what's gone wrong with Oregon jobless claims during the first weeks of the coronavirus outbreak:
• Long processing times: Many laid-off workers have been waiting more than a month for their claims to be approved, frequently because of erroneous rejections by the state's rickety computer systems. Overwhelmed by the number of claims, the employment department hasn't communicated individually with these workers and hasn't issued broad guidance on what's gone wrong or how it plans to fix it.
• Phone calls: Many claims can be processed automatically, online. Others require a call to the employment department. With more than 330,000 Oregonians suddenly out of work, the department's phone lines are overwhelmed. Most callers get only busy signals, even if they call hundreds of times. Those who do get through spend an average of two hours on hold – and fewer than half those calls get answered. The department has expanded its claims processing staff from 110 to 520, with plans to increase to 800. Even that isn't close to keeping up with demand, though.
• Waiting week: Laid-off workers typically have to wait a week after losing their jobs before they are eligible to collect benefits. Congress provided funding last month to eliminate the waiting week and most states immediately said they would. But Oregon officials said they would not implement a waiver because reprogramming the agency's antiquated computer systems would take too much time – a decision that would cost the state workers well over $100 million in lost benefits. Gov. Kate Brown reversed the decision amid pressure from the state's congressional delegation and following coverage of the issue by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
• Contractors and the self-employed: Such workers don't pay into the unemployment claims system and aren't typically eligible for benefits. Congress changed that in March but Oregon took a month to adapt its systems. It began taking those claims Tuesday but says it could take up to a month to process some of them.
• $600 federal checks: Congress funded a $600 weekly bonus last month for laid-off workers. Oregon moved quickly to pay out the federal money – but then withheld thousands of checks last week. The state didn't explain why it withheld the checks, but later told The Oregonian/OregonLive it withheld the money because it had double-paid more than 10,000 workers in the first week of the new benefit. However, many workers' claim histories appear to indicate they were not double-paid. The state says it is still trying to figure out what happened.
• "Restart error": For two Sundays in a row, the employment department told workers they must restart their claims when they file for weekly benefits. The restart notifications were a mistake but the employment department didn't immediately say so – and the error occurred on a second Sunday after the department said it has been fixed.
Here is an overview of what's gone wrong with Oregon jobless claims during the first weeks of the coronavirus outbreak:
• Long processing times: Many laid-off workers have been waiting more than a month for their claims to be approved, frequently because of erroneous rejections by the state's rickety computer systems. Overwhelmed by the number of claims, the employment department hasn't communicated individually with these workers and hasn't issued broad guidance on what's gone wrong or how it plans to fix it.
• Phone calls: Many claims can be processed automatically, online. Others require a call to the employment department. With more than 330,000 Oregonians suddenly out of work, the department's phone lines are overwhelmed. Most callers get only busy signals, even if they call hundreds of times. Those who do get through spend an average of two hours on hold – and fewer than half those calls get answered. The department has expanded its claims processing staff from 110 to 520, with plans to increase to 800. Even that isn't close to keeping up with demand, though.
• Waiting week: Laid-off workers typically have to wait a week after losing their jobs before they are eligible to collect benefits. Congress provided funding last month to eliminate the waiting week and most states immediately said they would. But Oregon officials said they would not implement a waiver because reprogramming the agency's antiquated computer systems would take too much time – a decision that would cost the state workers well over $100 million in lost benefits. Gov. Kate Brown reversed the decision amid pressure from the state's congressional delegation and following coverage of the issue by The Oregonian/OregonLive.
• Contractors and the self-employed: Such workers don't pay into the unemployment claims system and aren't typically eligible for benefits. Congress changed that in March but Oregon took a month to adapt its systems. It began taking those claims Tuesday but says it could take up to a month to process some of them.
• $600 federal checks: Congress funded a $600 weekly bonus last month for laid-off workers. Oregon moved quickly to pay out the federal money – but then withheld thousands of checks last week. The state didn't explain why it withheld the checks, but later told The Oregonian/OregonLive it withheld the money because it had double-paid more than 10,000 workers in the first week of the new benefit. However, many workers' claim histories appear to indicate they were not double-paid. The state says it is still trying to figure out what happened.
• "Restart error": For two Sundays in a row, the employment department told workers they must restart their claims when they file for weekly benefits. The restart notifications were a mistake but the employment department didn't immediately say so – and the error occurred on a second Sunday after the department said it has been fixed.
