'If something's broken, you fix it': Portland dad sees unemployment insurance delay due to typo
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — A North Portland family says they’re on the brink of selling their house due to a glitch in the unemployment insurance system.
The Oregon Employment Department (OED) launched a new website earlier this year, Frances Online. And while some delays were expected, some people are having trouble filing claims smoothly.
Gregory Smith is a father who recently got laid off, telling KOIN 6 News the state’s broken system sunk his lifeline.
“It's been five weeks, coming up on six weeks now, that I have seen dime zero. We've burned through our reserves,” said Smith, who was the household’s sole breadwinner.
The steady job he once had to support his family’s dreams is no more. Ever since he unexpectedly got laid off from Intel in early March, Smith said he’s been desperately waiting to receive his unemployment insurance.
“I've got two kids, a wife, pretty decent house that I worked really, really hard, 50-60 hours a week for seven years to be able to remodel my house and make it this happy place for my family,” he said. “And because of a simple typographical error that I cannot — somehow cannot — get repaired, it's likely that I may lose this house.”
The hold-up? Smith found out that OED has a single digit wrong in his address. He tried three times to fix it — going to their office in person, sending messages online and waiting upwards of 6 hours to talk to a person on the phone — yet it's still wrong.
“I understand that this Frances Online system has been buggy, but not empowering your employees to fix customers' problems and customers who have paid into this system through their labor is not tenable," he said. "You can't keep a system that doesn't work."
Smith said the chaos stemming from the state's rollout of its new website is unacceptable.
“If something's broken, you fix it. You don't just keep limping along and hope that the parts don't drop out of the bottom,” he said. “And the thing is, in the unemployment department, the parts that drop out of the bottom are the people who pay taxes.”
Smith urges the state to fix the system and fulfill its obligation to taxpayers.
KOIN 6 got in touch with OED who said they're looking into Smith's situation but can't speak to the specific claim. Their office said they're experiencing very high call volumes and encourage people to use their online resources to update accounts.