Oregon hopes to begin processing jobless claims for self-employed Oregonians and gig workers by the end of April, Gov. Kate Brown’s administration said Wednesday. It’s the first time the state has set a timetable for the anxiously awaited expansion of its unemployment program.

Congress made those workers eligible for benefits when it passed the CARES Act coronavirus aid package last month. But Oregon, like many other states, has been unable to adapt its unemployment claims systems to process those payments.

That means thousands of Oregonians who aren’t working during the coronavirus outbreak haven’t been receiving benefits in the weeks since Congress passed the relief package. Those who may qualify include music teachers, contractors, freelance writers and some small business owners, many of whom have been without any income for weeks.

“We’ve got a little more than a week and a half to start seeing those claims roll through the system,” Christian Gaston, Brown’s workforce and labor policy advisor, told an online gathering of Oregon business leaders Wednesday.

The Oregon Employment Department relies on an antiquated computer system built in the 1990s. Brown joked Wednesday that it is “older than I am.”

The system has produced errors that have confused and frustrated thousands of Oregonians and bogged down the processing of the state’s claims system.

On Wednesday the department said the system accidentally double-paid paid $600 federally authorized bonus checks to some unemployed Oregonians this month. To fix the mistake, the department withheld the $600 checks from more than 10,000 laid-off workers this week – confounding many who had received no explanation as to why they didn’t receive the benefits they expected.

The ancient system has prevented the state from waiving the one-week waiting period for new jobless claims. Facing pressure last week, though, the governor said the state will ultimately implement that waiver – and pay claims for that waiting week retroactively.

The obsolete computer system also is responsible for Oregon’s delay in paying benefits to the self-employed and gig workers. On Wednesday, Gaston said the employment department is “doing the work to get that in place right now.”

The employment department began contacting a small number of self-employed workers this week and invited them to apply for benefits, according to Gail Krumenauer, the department’s communications director.

“We’re doing that cautious, diligent testing to make sure it is working,” Krumenauer said. Once the department believes it has the system working properly, she said the state will begin processing claims for the self-employed.

That doesn’t mean workers will receive payments right away – the department says it takes three weeks, on average, for checks to start going out. Some workers have waited much longer.

Now, though, the self-employed have a timeframe for when the process will begin.

“The hope is that we’ll have it up by the end of the month,” Krumenauer said.

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway |

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