Two said they spent about 28 hours in total struggling with the new program just to get benefits.
PORTLAND, Ore. – Oregon is having trouble getting its new unemployment system up and running. The “Frances Online” computer software launched Monday after the state invested $100 million in renovations.
The Oregon Department of Employment is aware of its problems and held a meeting Wednesday to finally address these complaints.
Aaron Kier was laid off in mid-January and was receiving benefits every week until the new software was launched. Kier said he spent nearly 18 hours on the phone trying to get benefits.
“You can’t really expect to turn off one system one day and turn on another the next day,” Kier said. “Certainly not if you’re logging tens of thousands of users.”
The Oregon Department of Employment hired 40 additional staff at the beginning of the year to handle customer support and learning about the new system.
But Kier sees no improvement.
“Their phone lines have been busy all day for 2 1/2 days,” Kier said. “These are not people who have a hard time learning a new system. These are people who tell you that the system doesn’t work. It’s broken.”
The OED said it is closely monitoring the system to deal with complaints, such as customers with active claims who are unable to complete a bill.
“If this happens, the fastest option for customers is to restart the account creation process,” said Lindsi Leahy, director of unemployment insurance. “Once they do, the key step is to confirm their identity.”
‘I JUST WANT MY MONEY’: Families left in limbo after 2-month delay in Oregon paid leave
Another Oregonian, who wishes to remain anonymous, said he spent 10 hours on the phone trying to get benefits. He said this problem only started after the update for him as well.
“Monday I spent about three hours trying to contact them on hold. Tuesday I spent about three hours on hold in the morning and then four hours in the afternoon,” he said.
The OED said it will be several weeks before they have a full picture of how the system works.
The agency said the rollout of the new technology has been relatively smooth, adding that more than 23,000 weekly requests for existing customers have been successfully received.
“Through Frances, we have paid out more than $8.1 million in unemployment insurance benefits,” Leahy said.
The OED claimed that the average time for customers submitting weekly claims was just under 11 minutes on desktop and less than 9 minutes on mobile.