The state remains on track to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in long-delayed federal “waiting week” relief money to unemployed Oregonians by the end of the month – perhaps in time for Thanksgiving.
The Oregon Employment Department provided the update last week in a letter to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, who has been advocating for the payments since the state’s jobless benefits crisis began last spring.
Oregon is the only state in the nation that hasn’t paid waiting week money to jobless residents. Newly unemployed workers must typically wait a week before being eligible for benefits, but Congress waived that requirement in March.
Oregonians' money has been held up by the state’s obsolete computers. For weeks last spring, during the heart of the pandemic crisis, the state refused to commit to paying the federal money at all.
Gov. Kate Brown reversed course under intense pressure from Wyden, U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer and the other members of the state’s congressional delegation. But the department still hasn’t made the payments as it works to update its computers and prior guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor indicated Oregon would forfeit the money if it didn’t make the payments by year’s end.
In a letter to Wyden last week, however, employment department Director David Gerstenfeld said federal authorities now say they will give the state more latitude on the $600 unemployment bonus.
“That means, specific to the waiting week, that even if there are unexpected challenges, like new or federal programs to implement, unexpected increases in unemployment or other issues, that cause some payments to not be made before the year ends, the additional $600 per week will still be paid to those people,” Gerstenfeld wrote.
It isn’t yet clear whether the Dec. 31 deadline remains in place to pay the waiting week money for regular unemployment benefits.
Nearly 600,000 Oregonians have filed regular unemployment claims since March and the state has paid benefits to nearly 380,000 of them -- but not the waiting week money. It’s not clear how many of those who received payments qualify for waiting week payments, or how many of the remainder are actually waiting for regular benefits. Some were ineligible or received benefits through other programs.
So no one knows the exact amount of waiting week money outstanding in Oregon. But the payments amount to more than $800 apiece for most people who lost work beginning in April, including the $600 weekly unemployment bonus in effect from late March until late July.
An analysis by The Oregonian/OregonLive last month found Oregon was among the very slowest to pay claims last spring and summer, falling far below the three-week federal benchmark for paying timely benefits during an unprecedented surge in claims.
The employment department says the state’s low ranking is misleading because it reflects Oregon’s practice of paying older claims first. However, Oregon consistently ranked near the bottom regardless of the month or length of the delay.
In a statement Sunday, Wyden said he is pleased the employment department has committed to paying the waiting week benefits this month and that it appears to be processing new claims faster.
“Given the enormous frustration Oregonians have experienced, I intend to watchdog every day to ensure these critically important goals are met. It’s unconscionable when Oregon is first in so many areas to have Oregon lagging behind in getting workers the benefits they need and are entitled to receive,” Wyden wrote.
The employment department says it now is processing new claims promptly, but last week still had a backlog of 34,600 claims awaiting “adjudication,” a legally mandated process to determine benefits eligibility for workers with complex work histories. Many of those applicants have been waiting for several months, but the department hopes to adjudicate their claims by year’s end.
Complicating matters, though, the department revealed in a deposition last month that as many as 90,000 other people have pending claims that may also require adjudication. And an unknown number of self-employed workers continue waiting for benefits under the new federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program.
The employment department has said it is unable to determine how many Oregonians altogether are still awaiting unemployment benefits.
“It’s urgent that Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims are processed, and I’m pushing hard to extend that program into 2021,” Wyden said. “I’m also working on legislation that would cover these workers on a permanent basis so we’re better prepared for the next crisis.”
Note: The Oregonian furloughed its journalists for a week earlier in the pandemic. They, like other furloughed Oregonians, qualify for waiting week payments.
-- Mike Rogoway | mrogoway@oregonian.com | twitter: @rogoway |
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