How Do I Sign Oregon Banking Claim

How do i industry sign banking oregon claim

Hi my name is Bonnie Brzozowski and I'm a reference librarian at the Corvallis-Benton County Public Library. I'm recording this video today to show you how to apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance otherwise known as PUA on the state of Oregon Employment Department website. So if you are a self employed gig worker or independent contractor, a 1099 worker, you are eligible for PUA, so that is the unemployment benefit that's being extended to that umbrella of workers. If you do not fall under that umbrella you may still be eligible for unemployment insurance if your employment situation has been impacted by COVID-19 and I'll show you more information about that here in just a second let's all get on the same page so we need to start in terms of actually applying we need to start at the Oregon state of Oregon Employment Department homepage you can get there by typing in this right here which I'm going to highlight it's www.oregon.gov/employ You can also do a web search for Oregon Employment Department that should get you right there they've pulled out two of their most relevant links right here up top in the little yellow section if you can see that as I was highlighting a second ago this COVID 19 page will show you if you are eligible for unemployment insurance benefits and if you are not a self-employed person or a gig worker or independent contractor so if you don't fall under that umbrella it's quite possible you might be eligible. Check out this page. I have a video on this YouTube channel that actually goes over that process so take a look but because we're focusing on pandemic unemployment assistance we are going to check out this CARES Act page but most one of them there are many notable differences about these two ways of applying for unemployment benefits and I want to point out the major way which is that pretty much anyone who isn't self employed, gig worker etc is going to be applying using the online claim system. And then anyone who does fall under that umbrella of self-employed etcetera is going to be applying using a PDF application that they're going to find on this cares Act page. Otherwise both processes are similar in that the way unemployment works if you've never applied before you make an initial claim so you fill out an initial claim application and then for every week that you remain unemployed you fill out a weekly claims report. I also see it referred to as a weekly certification sometimes, I've also seen it referred to as a weekly claim or just a weekly report so all that seems to be used pretty interchangeably and it means the same thing. Let's go ahead and actually look um at the CARES Act page a little bit more closely. So something that I didn't note before I proceed is that there are a few other types of people who might be eligible for pandemic unemployment assistance. Those would include um individuals who lack sufficient work history so if you don't have a full 18 months of work history you might apply for pandemic unemployment assistance if you don't qualify for a regular unemployment insurance claim and then you might apply for a PUA or pandemic unemployment assistance or if you've exhausted other forms of unemployment insurance benefits you might qualify for pandemic unemployment assistance if you're uncertain if you are eligible but it sounds like you might be based on the information I've given so far then I would suggest just applying the Oregon Employment Department is pretty inundated with with claims and with people trying to contact them so it's really difficult to get in touch with them to actually ask them about eligibility so they're encouraging people to just apply and you'll find out about your eligibility that way and it's not a terribly lengthy process so I'd encourage you to just apply so we're going to explore this CARES Act page and a little bit more detail the applications you need her right here up top they've been translated into other languages this is the initial claim application this is the application form that you'll apply that you'll use every week for every week that you're unemployed after filing your initial claim application the instructions on filing a PUA application are here and so this is a full step-by-step on how to fill out the initial claim application those some of the questions that are also on the weekly certification or weekly claim report are also covered in these instructions too so those may be useful to you as well with a weekly certification and I would encourage you to have these open and perhaps in a new tab or a new window while you're filling out your application it just might save you some time because it's you can reference it if you have run into any questions the section that might be particularly helpful so I I clicked on the instructions on how to file a PUA application so we could look at that handout together and so things like applicant information your employment information that's fairly straightforward but the eligibility questions in Section C you might have questions about and these are COVID 19 situations that may have impacted your employment and so you'll want to make sure that you're answering those questions correctly a lot of times these questions ask for then written responses depending on how you've answered them so you're gonna want to be sure that and you are filling that out completely correctly again you don't want to do anything that's gonna delay your claim in any way because you want those benefits as soon as possible and you don't want to have to be in a situation where you have to talk to somebody on the phone because it's gonna be really difficult to get in touch with them so and be sure to go through this info and make sure that you're answering everything and as accurately as possible so there are no errors in your initial claim nothing did nothing to slow you down so we're gonna close that out and continue to look at this um CARES Act page the information about how to submit is actually on the application itself and I'll show you that here in a minute but it's also right here on the web page so go up unless you can see it and so you can fax your an initial application in your weekly reports or you can mail them or you can email them using a secure email link that they will email you after you email them at this you know address so take a look there and see what your preference is have your one again you're gonna need to be filing weekly so whatever works best for you and I want to draw your attention to this video over here this is about a 19 minute video it goes over much of the information and this instructions on how to file a PUA application so if you preferred your more visual person and this might be a better pick for you but if you're just kind of wanting something open that you can reference as you go that might be the way to go but these essentially are essentially the same information there's maybe a little bit more info here about the actual claims process and the communication you can expect to receive from them once you submit this and that's kind of included in this video so it might be worth at least catching the tail end of that video if you don't want to watch it all the way through and would rather just use the handout so please note that there are and FAQ is down here so these just talk more about who is actually eligible for PUA how much are you gonna receive in benefits notably and you don't really need to provide any documentation about your previous employment to the Employment Department to be eligible for these benefits but if you want to be eligible for more than the minimum which is 205 dollars per week you are gonna need to show some proof of prior income from the previous year and these are examples of things that you could submit to them and that could help them determine your benefit amount and you could potentially get a higher benefit and depending on what your income was in those years so that's when you might want to submit and some documentation there's an even more complete set of frequently asked questions here if you'd like I'm just going to continue scrolling down the page to show you a few other things they also have frequently asked questions regarding pandemic emergency unemployment compensation that is a 13-week extension of unemployment insurance benefits for those who've exhausted their regular benefits and remain out of work so that sounds like you you can read more about that here I'm not going to cover that today. Further down the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation so a lot of people have been asking about this. This is a federal benefit as the name implies and that gives you six hundred dollars of benefits each week in addition to other unemployment benefits you might be eligible for or might be receiving so that does include pandemic unemployment assistance so all you need to do to qualify for this additional six hundred dollars of benefits it will either apply for PUA and as we're going over in this case or um apply for unemployment insurance if that's what you qualify for so if you are not a self-employed game worker or independent contractor you would just go and apply through the regular unemployment insurance system and you would also automatically receive this six hundred dollars of weekly benefits and from the federal pandemic unemployment compensation fund so just note you don't really need to do anything to receive those benefits you need to apply for unemployment and benefits under the correct program with your with your employment Department in your state to receive these federal benefits so we're gonna look at the actual applications as I think I mentioned I would do earlier so we're gonna start with the initial application here opening it in any tab again we've got our applicant information applicant employment and I could spend much time on those I think they're pretty straightforward eligibility questions as I mentioned go to that instructional handout or that video for further information on how to answer these questions as accurately as possible section d the self employment information only needs to be filled out if you are you were self employed authorization for tax withholding pretty much everyone is going to need to select yes unless for some reason you are not required to file a tax return usually but this is considered taxable income so in pretty much in all cases you are going to need to check yes and then retroactively filing so these benefits the pandemic unemployment assistance um is available to you going back to February 2nd so if you've been employed unemployed since February 2nd and then you are this type of worker you can apply for a retroactive benefits and if you had been a been employed and then you are unemployed later than February 2nd again you can go back to that time so be sure to note the weeks that you have been unemployed and I put those in there the reason this is in there is because I don't know if you have noted and this particular assistance program you could not apply for it until Tuesday April 28th even though the benefit you've been eligible for the benefit since February going back to February 2nd so they're gonna be retroactively giving you those benefits you need to tell them what benefits you are in you need to get you're entitled to so the finally there's just a few more questions about other ways that you might be being compensated you're gonna want to make sure that you review these state requirements here regarding whether or not you're able and available for work so be sure to check those out as well and most the reason that this is important to note is because so in order to remain eligible for unemployment generally you have to prove that you're actively seeking a job and that you're able and available to work and because we're in this and COVID 19 situation and we can't freely and go and look for work at this time and we're all kind of restricted in our ability to go and actually search for and hunt for work and so that's why a lot of us are probably going to end up saying yes to this question but I can't tell you for sure what you're gonna say that question you need to review the state requirements and make sure that you do seem like you're able and available to work even though that means that you may not be actively going out to employers and seeking employment as that's not appropriate at the current the current moment and your benefits are going to be awarded to you through direct deposit unless you and don't tell them that you want direct deposit and if you if you tell them nothing or don't you don't opt for direct deposit they're going to give you a check for your first weeks of first week of benefits and then for every week after that they're going to give you a Reliacard which is a Visa debit card that they're just going to keep reloading your benefits on so this section is simply just telling you about that card and what you can expect from that card and then you just need to acknowledge that you've actually read this and understand this information even if you perhaps are not getting a card and are going with direct deposit and you need to certify that you are actually and being truthful in this application as I have noted you're not actually required to submit any information verifying previous employment or that you were unemployed that you were you've been laid off or anything like that so you need to certify that you are being truthful here and given a signature and answer a few more questions they have and the information about how to submit your application here and I pointed to it on the CARES Act page but it is also actually on the application gonna close this out so we can look at the weekly certification really quick this is a much shorter form so and name your ID number they give you you're getting answer some questions about self employment if you're self employed otherwise have your other employment and then and these questions are actually a repeat of some of the questions that your that you can see on the initial claim application so if you have questions about any of these take a look at that handout that I pointed to before and it'll advise you again and so this is actually the form that you'll be completing more frequently and submitting every single week and through either email mail or fax great so I think that covers it well one important note I should make us I noted that in this video here towards the very end of it they mentioned something that could throw some people off so I want to throw it out there after you've actually filed your initial claim for PUA you're gonna receive a letter at your house and it's it's called a wage and potential benefit letter and it's going to advise you that you do not qualify for unemployment insurance um otherwise known as UI and that's fine you're not you are not applying for unemployment insurance so you're applying for PU a pandemic unemployment assistance which is a totally separate program so don't be discouraged that doesn't mean you didn't qualify for PU a it means you don't qualify for UI which actually good because if you qualify for UI that means that you need to have applied through the online system and you're not going to end up getting it's a PUA you're usually you're eligible for one or the other and so wait and you're after your claim is process you're going to receive a new letter advising of your new eligibility under PUA so I hope this video am i doing helpful to you i've had some information that can be useful to you if you have any questions at all about how to submit to your application or questions on your application or you just want to talk to a librarian about this process at all please do not hesitate to contact us that's what we are here for we want to answer your questions we want to make sure that you get these applications submitted we will do our best I don't I don't have any and I don't have any special contact at the Oregon Employment Department I'm afraid so and but but perhaps there's some way that we can help you out and don't hesitate to contact us if you need to know how to contact us and go to our webpage cbcpl.net or cbcpubliclibrary.net/contact-us or if you can just get to our home page it's right there under contact us. We're available through email, sometimes we're available online to chat with you. You can text us, you can give us a call but don't hesitate to reach out. Good luck with this process. Thank you so much for listening.