SALEM — The Oregon Employment Department, in partnership with Google, on July 17 launched a new Pandemic Unemployment Assistance online form that will make it easier for Oregonians to apply.

The form also allows the more than 100,000 mostly self-employed Oregonians who have applied for PUA to get their weekly benefit payments faster.

The three major improvements are: speedier weekly benefit processing, improved submission success, and ensuring all required information is complete prior to submission.

People should resubmit their weekly claims through the new form if they have not already been paid for those weeks, though they do not have to, according to a press release from the Oregon Employment Department. Doing so will speed up how quickly they get their benefits and will let claims specialists focus on claims for people who have not yet received their benefits.

In addition to the new application, the department launched a new informational website July 10, unemployment.oregon.gov, which will be available in 15 languages in the coming weeks.

The application and the website are part of the department’s efforts to improve the overall customer service experience and the speed at which claims can be processed.

Claims specialists will need to review PUA applications, also known as initial claims, but that will be easier to do. Claims require review to ensure applicants are eligible under the federal CARES Act and to determine a person’s weekly benefit amount. Weekly PUA claims filed through the new online form will auto-process, sending a person either the $205 per week minimum benefit or a higher weekly benefit amount — up to a maximum of $648 per week.

To get more than $205 per week, a person must have earned more than $16,480 in the 2019 tax year. They have to provide proof of income for their most recently completed tax year (2019 for most people).