coronavirus - unemployment

Ohio will get more than a half a million doses of all three COVID vaccines next week. Gov. Mike DeWine says it’s by far the highest amount the state has received so far.

The head of the state agency that oversees Ohio’s embattled unemployment system is stepping down. 

The top leader of the Ohio Senate says the issues with the state's unemployment compensation system represent a catastrophic government failure.

Filings for unemployment benefits had been slowly ticking up in January. But the last two weeks of reported numbers show an explosion of claims. And the state’s job and family services agency is now flagging tens of thousands of claims filed in those last two weeks.

Some of the  more than140,000 Ohioans who have recently filed for unemployment may not be getting their checks soon due to another problem with fraud in the system for processing those claims. 

134,000 gig workers, independent contractors and self-employed Ohioans who have been waiting on their unemployment claims for more than a month will now get paid.

People around Ohio are lodging complaints about the state's unemployment compensation filing portal. Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) says an unprecedented influx of people applying for benefits continues to weigh down the system.

The number of jobless claims reported this week in Ohio was the highest since last spring, and more than a quarter of a million Ohioans are still out of work. While that’s half of the number at the height of the pandemic, experts say the economy is still struggling.

Thousands of Ohioans says they're struggling to file unemployment claims through the state's system that is slow and unresponsive. Gov. Mike DeWine (R-Ohio) says the state is doing a complete overhaul to address the issue.

1.7 million 1099-G tax forms will be mailed this month to Ohioans who got unemployment benefits – and to some that didn’t but are the victims of fraudulent claims. And Ohio's attorney general is concerned about that.

The federal government has authorized $300 weekly unemployment bonus checks, but many Ohioans say they are not getting them yet. 

Ohio enters the new year with the economic task of repaying federal loans used to pay unemployment benefits needed during much of the pandemic.

Some victims of unemployment fraud in recent months are starting to worry they will be on the hook to pay taxes for money they didn’t receive.

More than 1.5 million Ohioans – nearly 13 percent of the state’s population – have received some sort of unemployment assistance since the pandemic began last spring. And some of those people could still be receiving benefits. 

A new law that sends $650 million in federal CARES Act money to Ohio communities to help with pandemic-related costs also includes a potential overhaul for the process to apply for unemployment benefits.

The state is moving forward with President Donald Trump's executive order to offer additional money for people getting unemployment benefits since the pandemic, but it's half of what unemployed people were getting before a federal relief measure expired.

Payments to more than a quarter of a million non-traditional unemployment cases in Ohio are being halted and are under investigation. The state says most are part of a scam that’s resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in fraudulent payments in other states.

An extra 20 weeks of unemployment compensation will be made available to eligible Ohioans once they have exhausted their other benefits. 

A collection of health and human services advocates are urging state leaders to immediately work on revamping the unemployment compensation system in order to avoid another backlog in the future.

The fund that the state uses to pay jobless benefits is now broke – which was predicted even before the pandemic. And now state leaders are struggling with how to pay back the money being borrowed to keep those unemployment checks coming.

The fund by which Ohio pays jobless benefits is officially broke, and the state has asked to borrow more than $3 billion so payments can keep going out to unemployed workers.

The state has paid out more than $3.8 billion in unemployment benefits to over 683,000 Ohioans since mid-March, more than it’s ever paid out in a full year. And the state has paid $1.4 billion in federally funded pandemic unemployment assistance nearly 200,000 people who wouldn’t normally qualify for unemployment.

The woman in charge of the state agency that administers the unemployment system was on the hot seat yesterday as a panel of state lawmakers questioned her about inefficiencies in the system. 

As Ohio opens for business again, many workers have qualms about returning to their jobs. Some Democrats are proposing a bill they say will protect those workers.

1.2 million Ohioans have filed jobless claims since mid-March. And as Ohio’s businesses reopen, workers are concerned about the availability of child care, the cleanliness of their workplaces and the safety of vulnerable family members as they go back to work. And the agency processing claims has seen that concern too.

Ohio’s unemployment rate nearly tripled in just a month and set a record as COVID-19 closures and the state’s stay at home order fully hit economic activity.

Deloitte, a consulting company contracted by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), is investigating a data breach in the system launched last week to pay benefits to 1099 and self-employed workers. A mass message was sent to applicants letting them know that their personal information was left unconcealed for a period of time.

This morning brought long-awaited news for the self-employed, independent contractors and 1099 workers in Ohio – the system to pay them jobless benefits is live.

The Ohio Department Job and Family Services has paid more than $2 billion in unemployment claims to nearly 560,000 Ohioans since mid-March. But that’s only half of the 1.1 million claims that have been filed.

Ohio’s retail businesses that were shut down as non-essential are being allowed to open Tuesday. And by the end of next week, many restaurants, bars and hair salons will also reopen.