Press Release: OED Survey Results
Oregon music pro’s give a failing grade on delivery of CARES benefits
But the OED is now acknowledging shortcomings and promising improved support for the self-employed
May 27, 2020 Portland, OR - MusicPortland today released a damning report by statewide music professionals of the Oregon Employment Department’s handling of CARES Act relief for the self-employed. Many people in the music industry, including performing artists and music entrepreneurs, work as independent contractors, freelancers or as self-employed. These were the first people impacted by the shutdown in mid-March. The report assembles data from 276 music professionals from 14 Oregon counties and 33 cities.
The survey collection closed on 5/20 when the OED was still promising “about three weeks” from application to benefits. But three weeks after the PUA applications opened on April 28, only 3% of respondents had received any PUA benefits.
“71% of these people confirm that lost 1099 income is nearly all the money they make.” says Meara McLaughlin, Executive Director of MusicPortland “Music professionals here live on already slim margins so that almost ten weeks without any aid is devastating for them.”
The OED has faced unprecedented challenges during COVID-19; a tidal wave of claims, new Federal mandates to support the self-employed, evolving requirements, and a staffing deficit. They have had to navigate these challenges in two months while growing their staff from 100 to 700, and building an entirely new PUA system on an aged legacy system. Their claims processors are truly frontline workers trying their best to deliver benefits as quickly as possibly.
The music professionals gave the OED a failing grade for communications. Uncertain times like these demand transparency and candor to properly manage expectations and the OED provided neither. If the OED had trusted people enough to handle the worst news, they could have made other choices when private grants and relief were still available.
But the OED is beginning to acknowledge and improve in the week since this survey closed. Regarding communications to the public on the complexity of CARES Act changes, Gail Krumenauer, OED Interim Communications Director admits that "We did not make a clean pivot in that explanation, or give the best outreach to amplify those new messages once we had them on our own online resources."
Our survey reports that a whopping 95% of our respondents rated OED communications as “Inadequate" or “Nonexistent". Three days ago, Krumenauer reports that “We started an outbound e-mail and calling campaign on May 24th to notify PUA applicants who’ve been put into our systems, and let them know when we expect to process their claims.“ If there are questions, the processor will now call applicants to resolve any questions. If freelancers have not yet received an email confirming PUA claim receipt and review timeline, it may be that they applied via snail mail and the application is taking longer to get into the system. "We also continue working to improve the technology options for submitting PUA claims and weekly certifications.” says Krumenauer.
"MusicPortland is very pleased to see the OED acknowledging past shortcomings committing to processes that are more candid, communicative and efficient at delivering CARES PUA benefits.” says McLaughlin “The proof will be in how well they deliver aid in the next two to four weeks to waiting self-employed people in this State, including music professionals. With nowhere to go but up, we applaud their efforts to rebuild some trust and make good on the CARES Act promise for Oregonians.”