The Oregon Department of Employment said on Friday that it will not be charged for payments to self-employed workers until the end of this week, missing a self-imposed deadline.
The delays refer to Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), a benefits program created by Congress last March and extended in December. Oregon has promised to deliver arrears until Friday, but now says some benefits will be postponed indefinitely.
“We want to sincerely apologize for any confusion and delays in the payment of PUA benefits,” the department said on Friday in a letter to the complainants. “We know you need it and we count on your benefits and we are dedicated to bringing them to you.”
The employment department says it is currently paying 46,000 PUA claims. Friday’s delay applies to people whose PUA claims would have lapsed had it not been for the extension approved by Congress in December.
The employment department said the delay immediately affects 10,000 people with past due PUA claims and some of the 10,000 others who have exhausted their PUA clams and are not receiving benefits as the state reprograms their computers to accommodate the extensions.
The state said people seeking benefits should continue to file their weekly claims to avoid further delays. The employment department said it now expects to have retroactive payments paid and into the system by Thursday.
Since the state’s computers are scheduled to pay pending claims, the department said it will take at least a week for retroactive benefits to appear as paid claims in Oregon’s online system.
All categories of unemployment benefits in Oregon suffered huge delays last year, while the employment department struggled with an unprecedented amount of layoffs during the pandemic. Oregon’s claims system dates back to the 1990s and the state has repeatedly postponed an update, despite receiving $ 86 million in federal funds to pay for a replacement in 2009.
The state still has most of that money and plans to use it to help finance a reform that is scheduled to go into effect in 2025.
Earlier this week, the department agreed to a class action on the arrears and agreed to be more flexible and transparent about the claims situation.
– Mike Rogoway | [email protected] | Twitter: @rogoway |