PORTLAND — Oregon workers who have waited months for jobless benefits may be eligible for $500, one-time relief payments approved unanimously Tuesday by a bipartisan legislative committee.
The money would be an outright grant, which recipients wouldn’t have to pay back.
It’s not clear just who is eligible for the payments, though, and there is no process yet for how workers might apply. State administrators say it will likely be several weeks before anyone gets the money.
That could blunt the impact of the $35 million program, designed as a relief for unemployed workers who have waited months for benefits from the state’s faltering jobless claims system.
The Oregon Employment Department has struggled to process jobless claims throughout the coronavirus epidemic, leaving tens of thousands of Oregonians without income through the heart of the crisis.
More than 60,000 self-employed workers, newly eligible for benefits, have waited weeks or months for their benefits and the employment department warns it will be well into August before it clears that backlog. Thousands of other workers are waiting to have errors corrected in their claims or to adjudicate questions about their eligibility.
Oregon’s jobless rate was 11.2% in June.
Tuesday’s proposal seeks to provide some aid for workers who have suffered financially while Oregon has struggled to resolve the myriad problems with its antiquated jobless claims system.
“I would vote for this twice. What we have done to Oregonians is despicable,” said Sen. Betsy Johnson, D-Scappoose. “We have tortured some Oregonians to the point where they have sold their cars, they have no money for gas.”
House Speaker Tina Kotek, D-Portland, said the program remains “a work in progress.” She said lawmakers have received encouraging responses from financial institutions that would help distribute the money, but the broad framework approved Tuesday by the Legislature’s Emergency Board didn’t specify just how the payment process will work.
One possibility, Kotek said, is that the state might contact those who have been waiting an especially long time and offer them the money. She suggested workers might be required to visit a financial institution in person to claim the funds.
“We have to balance risk and also moving money quickly,” Kotek said.
The state plans to spend $35 million on the relief program, which it will fund from Oregon’s share of funds Congress awarded to states when it passed the CARES Act last March. It could fund payments for up to 70,000 workers – or fewer, if administrative costs eat up some of the budget.
The payments would be administered by the state’s Department of Administrative Services, not the employment department.
Katy Coba, chief operating officer for the administrative department, wrote to the Emergency Board on Tuesday to request additional guidance on how lawmakers want to determine who is eligible for the benefits. She said it will take at least six weeks to set up the payments.
“One critical program element will be determining how to minimize fraudulent applications and payments,” Coba wrote. “Implementing a program like this in a short period of time will undoubtedly lead to some level of fraud, however it is difficult for (the department) to quantify an amount.”
