The Oregon Employment Department reported fresh problems this week in processing a flood of new jobless claims, acknowledging that laid-off workers continue to receive erroneous denials as they seek to claim the benefits to which they are entitled.

The department also said it will not waive a one-week waiting period for new claims, even though the federal rescue package Congress approved last month provides money to fund waivers. Many other states have issued such waivers to begin paying benefits right away, but Oregon officials said a waiver would further delay processing new claims.

With the employment department swamped and phone lines jammed, laid-off Oregonians are turning to elected officials in search of help as they wait for their first benefits to arrive.

“Spent my day returning calls & emails from people having problems filing for unemployment. I fully understand their frustration. I know Oregon Employment Department is overwhelmed, but they have to get this right,” U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Portland, wrote on Twitter Monday. “People need help now!”

Spent my day returning calls & emails from people having problems filing for unemployment. I fully understand their frustration. I know Oregon Employment Department is overwhelmed, but they have to get this right.



People need help now! — Earl Blumenauer (@repblumenauer) April 6, 2020

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown appointed the employment department’s director, Kay Erickson, in 2016. In a statement Thursday, the governor’s office said the department will have quadrupled the number of staff taking claims, to 450, by the end of the week.

“The governor recognizes the critical importance of Oregonians being able to receive the unemployment insurance benefits they have earned, and the agency is dedicated to meeting the unprecedented demand,” wrote Liz Merah, an interim press secretary in Brown’s office.

“We appreciate Oregonians’ cooperation and patience as the Oregon Employment Department works to process a record number of unemployment insurance claims,” Merah wrote.

Oregon fielded an extraordinary 169,000 new jobless claims in the last two weeks of March, handily surpassing prior records as the coronavirus outbreak shut down bars, restaurants, stores, factories and many more businesses.

The employment department said last week it simply cannot keep up with the surge in jobless claims despite bringing staff in from other agencies and beefing up its website and phone banks. The department continues to report technical glitches in what its online systems tell claimants.

Nationally, nearly 10 million people filed for jobless claims in the last two weeks of March -- an unprecedented spike. Oregon is not the only state have trouble coping with the sudden volume of unemployed people seeking benefits. Mississippi, Florida and many other places have stumbled.

Oregon is facing a distinct set of challenges. The state’s website for filing claims has generally been able to handle the volume of activity but the department and laid off workers say it gives confusing answers, and isn’t easily adapted for recent changes in the benefits program.

“We are aware that there is an issue that is asking people to restart their claims and are in the process of creating a fix for it now,” the employment department wrote on Twitter Monday. “We will post with more information soon.”

The department’s administrative problems mounted when Congress expanded the categories of people eligible to make claims.

For example, the employment department wrote Monday on Twitter that its system had been notifying some workers that they were ineligible for unemployment benefits because they weren’t actively looking for work. But workers who expect to be recalled from a temporary, coronavirus-related layoff don’t have to seek new jobs to claim benefits.

“We made an automatic fix for that,” the department wrote. “Those claims will be processed and people should continue filing weekly claims.”

Congress extended the number of people eligible for claims but that has compounded Oregon’s problems as the state waits for federal guidance on how to process filings from gig workers and self-employed workers who didn’t qualify previously.

Late Tuesday the employment department posted a chart to help guide workers as they file claims under the new laws. But while the chart notes that self-employed and contract workers are eligible for benefits, it acknowledges that Oregon is still working to incorporate the federal changes into its systems and gave no indication of when those workers will be able to file claims.

Congress also provided funding for states that choose to waive the one-week waiting period for new claims. Many states have done that, but employment department economist Gail Krumenauer wrote in an email Tuesday that it’s impractical for Oregon to do the same.

Implementing a waiver would require “thousands of hours reprogramming” to the state’s filing system, Krumenauer wrote, further delaying claims. While leaving the waiting period in place will delay payments, she said it doesn’t reduce the number of weeks unemployed workers will be eligible for claims.

With the economic crisis deepening, though, many workers are facing an immediate cash crunch. And workers may have new jobs before they have exhausted their eligibility, which now last for up to 39 weeks. For those workers losing a week at the front end means a week of benefits they will never see.

Paul Cherachanko was laid off in March from his job at a company that designed exhibits for trade shows, one of many sectors completely obliterated as people hunker down to ride out the pandemic. He filed his claim two days later and received a mysterious rejection.

“It just said, no payment was made because your claim is not valid,” said Cherachanko, 60.

Seeking to learn why the state denied his claim, Cherachanko said he has called as many as 200 times a day over the past two weeks. His wife still has her job as a bank manager, Cherachanko said, so his family isn’t facing an immediate financial crisis.

But he said that could change at any time if something happens to his wife’s job or if one of them falls ill. Unable to get through by phone, and stymied online, Cherachanko said his patience is running out.

“They have no explanation to us,” he said. “It’s been over a month since I got a paycheck.”

-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway | 503-294-7699

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