An ex-employee of Asante health system, Catherine Bogan, reported having trouble collecting her unemployment benefits from Oregon. Bogan was part of 3% of Asante’s workers who were laid off in February. She has faced severe delays in call times with the state employment office and receiving verification letters. She isn’t the only one experiencing these issues.

Bogan’s case coincided with the roll-out of Frances Online, a new system for managing unemployment insurance and paid leave benefits in Oregon, which was launched in March. One criteria for receiving benefits is visiting a local WorkSource office for identity verification to avoid fraud. Bogan complied, but she then received a denial letter on her unemployment claim stating she hadn’t verified her identity.

Bogan tried calling the help number listed in the letter but couldn’t get through, like many others. When she returned to the local office, she learned they don’t handle unemployment claims. The staff suspected that the new Frances Online system is causing many of the issues.

She did receive a one-time password letter that was supposed to verify her identity in the system. However, the password had a five-day validity period, which had passed by the time she received the letter. Several others faced the same issue.

Currently, Bogan relies exclusively on her savings account and a GoFundMe set up by her friends. The Oregon Employment Department has stated to KGW, a Portland NBC affiliate, that they are revising their letter delivery process to provide their customers with more time to respond to their verification codes.

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