PORTLAND, Ore. — Oregon is having a rough time launching its new unemployment system. The computer software, "Frances Online," launched Monday after the state invested $100 million toward the revamp.
The Oregon Employment Department is aware of its issues, and on Wednesday, held a meeting to finally confront these complaints.
Aaron Kier was laid off in mid-January and had been receiving benefits weekly until the launch of the new software. Kier said he's spent almost 18 hours total on the phone trying to receive benefits.
"You cannot actually expect that you are going to unplug one system one day and plug in another one the next day," said Kier. "Certainly not if you are reporting over tens of thousands of users."
The Oregon Department of Employment hired 40 additional staff members at the beginning of the year to handle customer support and the learning curve of the new system.
But Kier doesn't see any improvement.
"Their phone lines are busy for the entire business day for 2-and-a-half days," said Kier. "Those are not people having a hard time learning a new system. Those are people telling you the system does not work. It's broken."
OED said they've been closely monitoring the system to address complaints, like customers with active claims not being able to complete an account.
"If this happens, the fastest option for customers is to restart the account creation process," said Lindsi Leahy, the unemployment insurance director. "When they do, the key step is to verify their identity."
'I JUST WANT MY MONEY': Families remain in limbo after 2 months of Paid Leave Oregon delays
Another Oregonian who wishes to remain anonymous said he spent 10 hours on the phone trying to receive benefits. He said this problem also only started for him after the update.
"Monday, I had 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.
OED said it would be a few weeks until they have a full picture of how the system is working.
The agency stated the rollout of the new technology has been relatively smooth, adding that more than 23,000 weekly claims have been successfully received for existing customers.
"We have paid more than 8.1 million dollars in unemployment insurance benefits through Frances," said Leahy.
OED claimed the average time for customers filing weekly claims on desktop was just under 11 minutes, and on mobile devices, less than 9 minutes.