WITH $300 Supplemental Unemployment Insurance Payment, Oregon $30K Worker "Claiming While Working" With Reduced Hours Could Receive Up to 169% of Full Time Wages for 11 Weeks.

Oregon's "Claiming While Working" program allows for partial unemployment insurance for workers whose hours have been cut back but ONLY if their reduced wages are no MORE than their weekly unemployment benefit amount. If reduced wages are above their weekly benefit amount workers do not qualify for ANY amount of unemployment insurance benefits. 

Workers who DO qualify are then allowed to keep up to $300 in weekly wage income without any reduction in their unemployment insurance benefit, and a dollar for dollar reduction of their unemployment insurance benefit  in the amount that exceeds $300. 

IF workers with reduced hours DO qualify they would also be eligible for the FULL amount of the $300 U I supplement in the recently passed federal legislation, which the President finally signed on Sunday evening. 

The table and graph I created HERE and embedded below shows 6 examples of how this would play out for a worker with full time annual wage income of $30,000, $577 a week, $14.42 per hour.

1. A completely laid off worker at $30,000 annually would receive a weekly unemployment insurance benefit of $375. Adding the recently approved $300 UI supplement raises weekly income to $675, and $98 MORE than the full time weekly wage of $577. That's 117% of the full time weekly wage. 
2. IF  the worker had their hours reduced by 20% or 30% the worker would NOT qualify for any unemployment insurance because the amount of reduced wages is higher than the amount of their unemployment insurance benefit.  These workers would only have their reduced wages as their sources of income.
3. The worker with a 40% reduction in hours would have total income of $975. That's 169% of the weekly full time wage and $398 more than the full time wage. [This 40% reduction of hours yields the highest total income of the examples I have used].  Note: In this scenario reduced wages of $346 are $46 above the $300 maximum so the amount of unemployment insurance was reduced by $46, from $375 to $329.
4. The worker with a 50% reduction in hours would have total income of $963. That's 167% of the weekly full time wage and $387 more than the full time wage.
5. Finally, the worker with a 75% reduction in hours would have total income of $819. That's 142% of the weekly full time wage and $242 more than the full time wage. 

After 11 weeks the $300 supplement is scheduled to end.  In all but two examples, the combined income of laid off workers or workers with reduced hours would be less than full time wage. The two exceptions: 

1. The worker with a 40% reduction would have combined income of $675, $98 more than the full time wage. That's 117% of the full time wage.
2. The worker with a 50% reduction in hours would have a combined income $663, $86 more than the full time wage. That's 115% of the full time wage.

Affordable Monthly Rents Increase by as Much as $518 a Month (For less than 3 Months).

At the bottom of the table I show the MONTHLY rents that are affordable with the $300 unemployment insurance supplement compared to the monthly rent affordable at the full time wage. 

As previously noted a reduction in hours by 20% or 30% results in NO unemployment insurance benefits, so monthly affordable rent at reduced incomes are $150 to $225 below affordable monthly rent at the full time wage. 

Reduction in hours of 40% or more results in payment of the $300 weekly bonus and that boosts monthly affordable rents between $128 and $518 MORE than affordable rent at the full time wage. 

Instead of an affordable rent of $750 at the full time wage the addition of the $300 UI Supplement boosts affordable rents to $878 to $1,268. This increased affordability however ends in less than 3 months.

The Oregon Employment Department "Working While Claiming" website HERE has more information about filing a claim for part time work. 

Note: "Working While Claiming" is NOT the same as Work Sharing, which has it's own set of rules and calculations. 

Originally created and posted on the Oregon Housing Blog.