Oregon Among the First to Pay Additional Unemployment Benefits

Oregonians see $25 increase in benefits.

Salem-News.com

(WASHINGTON D.C.) - When President Obama signed the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Bill of 2009, it signaled significant additions to Oregon’s unemployment insurance program.

One addition is the Federal Additional Compensation (FAC), which adds $25 per week to unemployment insurance benefits. Before Oregonians could receive FAC, however, major programming needed to be done to the Oregon Employment Department’s computer system. Due to the work of the department’s staff, in just over a week from the bill’s signing, payments were ready to be made.

Oregon became the first state in the northwest and one of the first in the country to pay the $25 addition to weekly unemployment insurance benefits.

On Monday March 2, the department paid $43,197,805 in benefits that included $3,233,750 in FAC. “Unemployment insurance benefits aid Oregonians who are between jobs, but just as significantly, the program keeps money flowing into the local economy,” said Tom Byerley, assistant director for unemployment insurance programs for the department.

“On Monday night we were able to pump an additional $3 million dollars immediately back into the local economy.”