Some have lost their cars or had their utilities shut off while waiting for unemployment benefits blocked by no fault of their own, said Sen. Meanwhile, Ohioans' financial futures are in limbo. And not everyone had applied: 48.8% of eligible traditional unemployment claimants and 19.4% of PUA claimants had sought a waiver, according to state data. 20, the state hadn't started to review any of those waiver applications. In August, the state's unemployment officials announced that Ohioans who received overpayments could keep the money if they file a waiver. I’ve got enough rejections that if I printed them out, I could bury my house.” I file between 20 to 50 applications a week. “I guarantee you I’ve never once thought about that money as a reason to be unemployed," DeLaat said. "I feel guilty every single day. ![]() He eventually got unemployment officials on the line, but his problems remain. DeLaat hasn't received benefits since January and feels stuck in an unemployment system that keeps failing him. With $21,000 in overpayments hanging over his head, any job he obtains won't be enough. This is one problem that DeLaat is pleading with the state to fix. More: Ohio's unemployment overpayments and fraud hit $3.86 billion during pandemic, few have requested waivers Since March 2020, Ohio's unemployment compensation system has doled out $3.38 billion in overpayments to about 700,000 people. Overpayments and account takeoversįraud and identification woes weren't the only messes. "If I go to the $9 an hour job, I lose everything."īowling plans to start work at a food delivery service and another full-time position soon. But she faced another cliff: Benefits extended by the federal government ended around Labor Day.īowling saw businesses begging for employees, but she struggled to find a job that paid a living wage for full-time work. She could buy groceries and food for her pets. With the money released, Bowling could pay bills that she had pushed off. Bowling, who is also a plaintiff in a case to restore federal unemployment benefits ended early by DeWine, had contacted a state senator, so that might have done the trick. Bowling doesn't know why, and the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services didn't explain. Her benefits were released weeks later with little fanfare. Instead, she had benefits loaded onto a pre-paid debit card. Unemployment officials said they needed to verify her identity even though she had received benefits since early 2020.īowling didn't want to provide bank account information for fear of being hacked. They are now asking for fewer documents, trying to balance warding off fraud and scaring off legitimate applicants, Ohio Department of Job and Family Services Director Matt Damschroder said. "Instead of just a cattle call of information, we’re trying to be much more targeted to help individuals."īowling, who started the subreddit on Ohio unemployment, had her benefits placed on hold for four weeks. Ohio's unemployment officials realized they had created a mess. Nearly 139,000 PUA claims are still pending from February 2021 – 27% of all unresolved cases and the highest month by far, according to an August unemployment report. Many didn't have a second form of photo identification, so applicants started sending selfies, she said. Applicants would be rejected because their photo was too fuzzy. ![]() Regina Campbell, an attorney at the Legal Aid Society of Greater Cincinnati, said helping low-income Ohioans compile documents to confirm their identities consumed most of their time. "They want you to snail-mail them the actual driver's license, Social Security card, birth certificate, along with a couple dozen tax forms," DeLaat said. "Snail-mail all of those documents in an envelope to an address, and people have said, 'Are you kidding me?'" “You can call in five times in one day and get five different answers.” “I say this in the nicest way possible: They have no clue on how to do anything except for verifying your information,” said Candy Bowling, 41, of Hamilton, who started a subreddit community on the website Reddit that became a go-to source for Ohio unemployment answers. Lawmakers required the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services to create a strategic staffing plan, but Thursday's audit found that the plan did not offer details on how officials could staff up during a spike in unemployment. Adding those basic options could help reduce call volume. Months into the pandemic, Ohioans still have no easy way to check the status of the unemployment claims or track a complaint, according to Faber's audit. Lengthy waits were the norm because of a slew of first-time applicants, technology glitches and an insufficient number of call center employees. At the time, the call center tasked with answering Ohioans' questions about applying for unemployment had 40 full-time employees.
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