Oregon extends unemployment benefits to the self-employed, contractors

The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program was designed to extend benefits to many who wouldn't ordinarily qualify for benefits — the self-employed, independent contractors, agricultural workers, the under-employed, and gig workers.

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Joining us now is gail chromin, our communications director at oregon employment department.

Gail, how is the pua different from regular unemployment?

The pandemic layman's assistance assistance program, or p u a is a program that is specifically designed to, uh, uh, make unemployment insurance available to self-employed contract and gig workers who weren't previously eligible.

Or regular unemployment insurance benefits.

So this is something that's never been available to them before in oregon or in any other city.

What extra or different steps do people need to apply for this program?

So traditionally, um, when someone is working for a funeral employer and they lose their job through no fault of their own, they comes to the employment department to file a claim front of committed insurance benefits and use information that their employer has been providing for the entire time that they have been working for that employer to determine their eligibility or their benefit amount and their eligibility, which is determined over a 12 month period.

And it's a percentage of their rnings.

Uh, over that 12 month riod, we don't have that same kind of information, and isactu, uh, for the self employed, uh, or the attract or many of the rkers.

And so pandemic andpymene s, uh, application just for them's at oregon.gov/employeenea detailed video, uh, was step by ep instructions for filling the application.

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Aum,r regular eloyment benefits.so alm ing their specific earningsinfmt