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About Appeal tribune. (Silverton, Or.) 1999-current | View Entire Issue (July 28, 2021)
2A | WEDNESDAY, JULY 28, 2021 | APPEAL TRIBUNE 20,000 Oregonians owed unemployment but they must do this first Address: P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309 Phone: 503-399-6773 Fax: 503-399-6706 Email: sanews@salem.gannett.com Web site: www.SilvertonAppeal.com Staff Bill Poehler and Claire Withycombe Salem Statesman Journal USA TODAY NETWORK Desperation brought Tony Ceballos to the concrete offices of the Oregon Employ- ment Department in Salem in the spring of 2020. He had exhausted every other option he could think of to submit his unemployment paperwork – including multiple treks to Of- fice Max to use the fax machine. Those all ended with busy signals. It was his third trip to Salem. Each time, Ceballos took the bus from his home in In- dependence. His car was broken and he didn’t have the money to fix it. Once at the office, he attempted to hand his paperwork to agency employees as they arrived for work. The workers just streamed by. After an argument with a security guard, someone finally took his papers. But Cebal- los would have to wait another six months before he got his first check. And his struggles to receive the unem- ployment payments he qualified for didn't end there. Ceballos is among 5,800 self-employed Oregonians whose payments were stopped because the state said they didn't provide enough documentation. He is among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit the Oregon Law Center brought against Da- vid Gerstenfeld, the director of the Employ- ment Department, in May. The lawsuit al- leged the department unjustly rejected claims, did not give reasons for the rejec- tions or did not provide applicants a way to appeal. Last month, the state settled that law- suit. Ceballos and the other 5,800 Oregonians now have until Sept. 4 to clear up their claim or will have to pay back all the unemploy- ment they received in 2021. Another 21,300 self-employed Orego- nians can still receive benefits for 2021 by submitting information by Sept. 4, accord- ing to the same settlement. Settlement buys self-employed time Emily Teplin Fox, an attorney with the Oregon Law Center, represented the plain- tiffs in the case. Teplin Fox said she thinks many will not realize the importance of the initial notice TA O B KU Missed Delivery? Call: 800-452-2511 Hours: until 7 p.m. Wednesdays; until 3 p.m. other weekdays and the new notices they received in the mail or email. “If they don’t submit sufficient proof of employment by Sept. 4th, they will be charged an overpayment of every dollar they received in 2021,” Teplin Fox said. According to the employment depart- ment, about 21,300 people seeking benefits through the program for self-employed peo- ple in 2020 didn't submit enough of the newly required information in 2021 to re- ceive any unemployment payments this year. That group could still receive benefits because of the settlement. Another 5,800, including Ceballos, stopped receiving payments the week of April 24 because the documentation they submitted was deemed insufficient. If they don’t get a new determination of their proof of unemployment, they will have to pay back all of the unemployment bene- fits they received in 2021, an average of $8,600 according to Teplin Fox. News Director Don Currie 503-399-6655 dcurrie@statesmanjournal.com Advertising Westsmb@gannett.com A new job fizzles in the pandemic Send letters to the editor and news releases to sanews@salem.gannett.com. Ceballos moved to Independence in 2019 and was working at a tire shop in the city. In March 2020, he was hired by the U.S. Census Bureau to work from its office in Sa- lem. Because of that job, he resigned from the tire store. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit and the census job didn’t happen. Since he was in the midst of changing jobs, Ceballos was eligible for Pandemic Un- employment Assistance, which was autho- rized under the federal CARES Act and aimed at the self-employed and gig work- ers. As new laws designed to help people in his situation were passed, Ceballos had to deliver to the state unemployment agency increasingly detailed paperwork about his work history. When the Continued Assistance Act was signed into law in December, Ceballos and the more than 100,000 self-employed peo- ple in Oregon suddenly faced new hurdles to getting their checks. Originally, people in his situation could simply attest they were self-employed. But starting in December, the Oregon Employ- ment Department – in accordance with new federal guidance – required more proof. Applicants had to submit documents in- cluding written statements from companies TA QUALITY! O B U K . BUILT GR2120 Classifieds: call 503-399-6789 Retail: call 503-399-6602 Legal: call 503-399-6789 Deadlines News: 4 p.m. Thursday Letters: 4 p.m. Thursday Obituaries: 11 a.m. Friday Display Advertising: 4 p.m. Wednesday Legals: 3 p.m. Wednesday Classifieds: 4 p.m. Friday News Tips The Appeal Tribune encourages suggestions for local stories. Email the newsroom, submit letters to the editor and send announcements to sanews@salem.gannett.com or call 503-399-6773. To Subscribe Call: 800-452-2511 $21 per year for home delivery $22 per year for motor delivery $30.10 per year mail delivery in Oregon $38.13 per year mail delivery outside Oregon Main Statesman Journal publication Suggested monthly rates: Monday-Sunday: $22, $20 with EZ Pay Monday-Saturday: $17.50, $16 with EZ Pay Wednesday-Sunday: $18, $16 with EZ Pay Monday-Friday: $17.50, $16 with EZ Pay Sunday and Wednesday: $14, $12 with EZ Pay Sunday only: $14, $12 with EZ Pay To report delivery problems or subscribe, call 800-452-2511 To Place an Ad Published every Wednesday by the Statesman Journal, P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309. USPS 469-860, Postmaster: Send address changes to Appeal Tribune, P.O. Box 13009, Salem, OR 97309. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID: Salem, OR and additional offices. confirming they were self-employed but as- sociated with the company, such as work- ing as a contractor. Then the employment department changed its rules again. In March, the American Rescue Plan be- came law. It required applicants to have those statements notarized, a legal process where signatures are witnessed. Ceballos' payments stopped in April. He would have given up and walked away. But he didn’t have another option. Ceballos was taking classes to earn his commercial driver’s license. He needed un- employment benefits to get by until he could complete his training and get a job. He submitted the new paperwork, but the state had determined the notarized affi- davits he submitted to prove he was unem- ployed weren’t enough, and he couldn’t find out why. “It stopped me from looking for work,” Ceballos said of the massive amount of time he spent trying to receive benefits. “It stopped me from doing my job search in other ways.” Improperly denying unemployment According to the lawsuit brought by the Oregon Law Center, at least 5,800 people in Oregon complied with the department’s new April requirements for proof of employ- ment, but the department rejected them anyway. The state and Oregon Law Center settled the suit in June. The state agreed to explain to applicants why their claims were rejected and to call or email them to try to resolve the issue. The employment department said in a statement it is reaching out to everyone in that situation. The department has agreed to add a new option on its online “Contact Us” form: “I don’t understand why my POE was reject- ed,” though that option doesn’t yet appear on its webpage. About 110,000 people in Oregon received benefits through that program. According to the employment department, another 26,000 people stopped receiving benefits at the start of the year because they did not provide any proof of their self-employment; if they submit that proof, they could still re- ceive benefits. Teplin Fox said some people could have missed the notices of new requirements amongst the automated rejection letters the department sends out or the emails from the department that end up in spam folders. “I’m sure a lot of people just throw up their hands and walk away because the sys- tem is very, very prohibitively hard to navi- gate,” Teplin Fox said. Finally getting paid, and a new job Teplin Fox said The Oregon Law Center submitted documentation for Ceballos in June, including additional proof of employ- ment and his W2s from 2019. Within a few days, his eligibility was reinstated and he received 10 weeks of over- due benefits. Had he not had that intervention, Cebal- los would have had to pay back the unem- ployment benefits he received since the be- ginning of the year. Ceballos got his commercial driver’s li- cense in June and started a job driving a dump truck for Independence-based Snair Excavating June 25. He’s excited about his new job, and eager to learn the intricacies of an 18-speed trans- mission. He's relieved he no longer has to worry about unemployment. “It’s a mess that I’m glad I don’t have to deal with anymore,” Ceballos said. Bill Poehler covers Marion County for the Statesman Journal. 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Dianne Lugo is a reporter at the Statesman Journal covering equity and social justice. You can reach her at dlugo@statesmanjournal.com, 503- 936-4811 or on Twitter @DianneLugo.
