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More than 200,000 Oregon jobless claims filed during outbreak haven’t been paid

By Mike Rogoway, oregonlive.com
Published: May 28, 2020, 8:30am

PORTLAND — Nearly half of Oregon jobless claims filed during the coronavirus outbreak have gone unpaid, the state disclosed Wednesday, significantly ratcheting up the scale of the state’s benefits crisis.

The Oregon Employment Department said more than 200,000 claims haven’t been paid, well over two months into the outbreak.

The department disclosed that figure for the first time Wednesday at a state legislative hearing as it endeavored to persuade lawmakers that it has a plan to deal with the enormous volume of unpaid claims. The department later indicated that number might be too high but did not provide an alternative figure to the one it reported at Wednesday’s hearing.

“Thousands of Oregonians have been left wondering if their benefits will arrive in time to pay their bills,” acknowledged department director Kay Erickson in her first public comments on the crisis in more than a month.

“For the thousands of Oregonians who are still waiting,” Erickson said, “I do apologize.”

Her presentation consumed the entire hour of the scheduled testimony, leaving no time for lawmakers’ questions. Committee Chairman Paul Holvey, D-Eugene, instructed his colleagues to submit written questions instead.

Oregon has fielded 440,000 jobless claims since the middle of March, testified David Gerstenfeld, director of a division within the employment department. He said a little more than 220,000 claims have been paid.

The total number of claims excludes thousands of newly eligible self-employed claimants. The department had previously disclosed that it has processed 366,000 regular claims.

Many of those processed claims apparently haven’t been paid for a variety of reasons – some are duplicate claims, others are newly filed, some are from newly eligible claimants and some are especially complicated. Many others are simply backlogged.

In normal times it takes about three weeks for new jobless claims to be paid, according to the employment department.

Oregon, like other states, is dealing with an unprecedented spike in jobless claims. The state’s unemployment rate jumped from a historic low in March, 3.5%, to a record high of 14.2% in April.

The state is also dealing with an antiquated computer system that dates to the 1990s, which has complicated efforts to cope with the influx of claims – especially because of recent changes in the benefits program that Congress authorized to deal with impacts from the coronavirus outbreak.

Oregon received more than $85 million in federal funding to upgrade the system in 2009 but has only begun the process in the last few years. It won’t be complete until 2025.

The employment department’s phone system is hopelessly overwhelmed by the crisis. Relatively few calls get through and callers routinely spend several hours on hold – and most of those calls are never answered, according to employment department data.

On Wednesday, Erickson reiterated that her department has increased the number of people processing claims from around 100 before the outbreak to roughly 700 now. She said the department is assigning more experienced claims processors to older, complex claims in an effort to clear its backlog.

Additionally, the employment department disclosed Wednesday that her department is working with Google in an effort to make the claims process more efficient and user-friendly for self-employed workers, who hadn’t been eligible for benefits before the outbreak.

At Wednesday’s hearing of the state House Interim Committee on Business and Labor, Erickson and Gerstenfeld gave a slideshow presentation, going over the issues facing the employment department and providing an extensive history of the unemployment claims system.

The presentation consumed all the allotted time, so lawmakers had no opportunity to weigh in on the situation or question Erickson and her deputy.

That exasperated Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, who said Oregonians deserve answers on “how we ended up I this mess, when the agency realized they had a problem” and other issues.

“This is just the latest glaring example of lack of accountability under our state’s leadership,” Boshart Davis said in a written statement after the meeting. “This is a deeply human crisis and the state has failed miserably. Oregonians deserve answers.”

This article has been updated to revise the number of unpaid claims from 220,000 to more 200,000, reflecting some uncertainty about the total number of unpaid claims.

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