Emergency Unemployment Benefits
Bill Long 7/15/08
Oregon Government--Here to Serve You?
On June 30, 2008 President George W. Bush signed PL 110-252, creating an Emergency Unemployment Compensation fund to extend unemployment benefits to people who do not qualify for any other unemployment benefits in any state or in Canada, and whose most recent claim expired after May 1, 2007. Thus, anyone who has been without work for more than a year (and who received benefits after May 1, 2007) is eligible for the lesser of 13 weeks of benefits, paid at the 2007 rate, or one half of one's regular claim maximum benefit.
States adminster this program through their respective employment departments. It thus puts a burden on the state employment departments, which probably have enough work to keep them busy, but with Internet technology and drop-in capability in big cities, you would think that these benefits could be administered and distributed rather seamlessly.
Oregon, My Oregon
Actually, Oregon got right on top of things by making benefits available during the week beginning on Sunday July 6, 2008. Thus, we are now in the second week that a person could sign up for the benefits. I decided to see how Oregon is doing in this process, since we Oregonians generally are pretty happy with the way our state government works for us. So, with letter in hand, I decided to see how one might sign up for this kind of benefit.
At first I was a bit surprised that they said one "must" call one's regional Unemployment Insurance Center before being able to get access to benefits. My experience with state bureaucracies who say you must make calls is that in order to handle expected volume, they better be ready with tons of operators. People without money or who want access to money are generally more desperate than the average person who works for state government or even for a private employer. Thus, when they see that they must call, what do you think they will do? Of course, call. That is the thing to do.
The notice informing of these benefits lists three numbers to call, based on whether you are in the Portland Metro, Eutene or Bend area. I suppose you are supposed to know magically where you call if you live outside these areas. For example, there isn't any advice on where a person in Salem should call. Salem is just about equidistant between Portland and Eugene, but closer to Portland. So, maybe that is the right place to call. It might have been helpful for them to clarify, since only a few citizens are clairvoyant.
Calling Portland
They helpfully gave two numbers for the Portland metro office. I called one--busy; then the other--busy. I figured, hm, sure they probably have a high volume, but I will keep trying. So, I decided to call on various DAYS, at various TIMES, to the Portland number. In each instance it was the same--busy signal. I even went into the Oregon Employment Department this morning, since I live near the place, and asked the person at the front desk what to do if you can't get through. The guy sheepishly admitted that he had formerly worked for the office in the Department (I asked him which division or program administered this EUC program) that put together this "program..." and you just have to "keep calling." I am not naming that program here to give them a chance to clean up their act...
So, I returned home this morning, and decided to keep calling. Still. Busy. I called the media people for the department, and talked to Craig Spivey, who helpfully pointed me to a section on their web site encouraging people NOT to call Monday or Tuesday because of high call volume. Interesting to tell people NOT to try to call on 40% of the week.
I can understand high volume, and so I asked Craig to tell me how many operators they actually have answering the phones at the Portland location. He didn't know, but pledged to get back to me on that one. Craig just called and gave me the following information. He said that about 53,000 notices of benefits were sent out, with about 65% of these going to people in the Portland Metro area (about 37,000). He said that there are 75 operators answering phones in Portland.
I said to Craig that it might be helpful to have a phone message that comes on, telling people the approximate wait that they might experience or where they are "in line." He said that there is an automatic answering device, but that when even that is overloaded, people just get a busy signal. The fact that I have gotten nothing but busy signals indicates that I am in the employment department equivalent to one of Dante's deeper rings of hell.
What To Do?
Oregon has tried to be "on task" by rushing to comply with the federal law before almost all other states, but they did so unwisely. They, like the toddler who begins to run but whose torso gets ahead of his body and tumbles on his face, have likewise tumbled. Of course the situation will "even out" eventually, as people either get their benefits or become so discouraged that they stop calling. Indeed, many people who don't have a job suffer from such low self-esteem that if they continually get "busy" signals, they will just give up.
When you look at the information that Oregon is required to collect in order to activate the benefits, you see that there is nothing that can't better be given online: name, dates last worked, money earned since last unemployment check, direct deposit information, etc. I say "better" because what use is there of speaking long numbers to another person, where confusion may enter? Indeed, with technology being what it is, it actually is rather crazy to have a phone call-in system. It takes a while to get the technology "up and running," Craig told me. Yes, probably about as long as it will take most people to stop getting busy signals....
Conclusion
One of the most popular writers in America in the 1980s was Robert Fulghum. His first wildly-successful book, All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, contended that basic lessons of life actually get you through almost everything in life. I would pick up on his theme by saying that all the Oregon Employment Department had to do to make this experience of accessing unemployment checks work is to ask a few kindergarten questions: (1) How many people might want to access benefits? (2) What are the options for allowing them that access? (3) How long might each realistically take, if everyone wanted their money right now? (4) What is the best thing to do, given a 'worst case' scenario? Much better to wait a week or so, putting a nice note on the web site telling people that it will take a week or so to get a program together (how difficult is it, really, do get a web guy/girl to write a program for this? The geek that helped me at Willamette could probably do it in a day), and that they will then be able to have access either through Internet or calling. Give people options. Make it simple. Don't make all unemployed people wait in line. It makes them think they are even BIGGER losers...
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