Oregon Employment Department director on major online claim system setbacks

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — In March, the Oregon Employment Department (OED) rolled out a new online claim system called Frances Online. However, things haven’t worked out the way they’d hoped.

Thousands of Oregonians seeking unemployment or paid leave benefits have had trouble navigating the system, getting anybody to answer their questions over the phone and long delays in getting paid.

KOIN 6 reporter Ariel Salk spoke with several people affected, including Laurie Boyce, whose husband was still waiting for his unemployment check a month after Frances went live, leading to worry about paying the mortgage.

Jesse Sweetman tried to arrange paid leave before having surgery for a brain tumor, but saw his application get delayed.

So what’s being done about this?

David Gerstenfeld, Director of OED, spoke on Eye on Northwest Politics this week, discussing whether this was a problem with Frances Online itself, how many people were affected overall and why these issues happened to begin with.

With OED also boosting staffing to handle the volume of submitted claims (currently leveled off at 30,000), while using overtime and staff from other agencies, Gerstenfeld discloses whether he believes these steps will solve the problems.

Since the clients profiled by KOIN 6 News, all got their claims handled, Gerstenfeld elaborates on how and why that was possible when so many others were having problems as well.

Watch the full interview in the video above.

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