Unemployment benefits

Children’s Hospital on Tuesday announced that vaccination clinics for kids 12 and up are open at its Akron and Boardman campuses; Governor Mike DeWine has signed into law a $465 million bill meant to help lower-income Ohioans pay for rent and mortgages; a new study at the Cleveland Clinic shows that the new technology behind the coronavirus vaccines is working well; and more stories.

Ohio will receive nearly $5.4 billion while counties, cities and townships will get $6.6 billion as part of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus relief package; Ohio this week will stockpile 140K vaccine doses and send 120K to other states; coronavirus cases continue to drop; and more stories.

The statewide average of COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents has decreased from 200 to just over 186 this week; the Akron Public School Board has selected to Christine Fowler-Mack for superintendent; Akron mayor Dan Horrigan is joining a group of other mayors and the organization Everytown for Gun Safety in calling on the U.S. Senate to take up two bills the House passed last month; and more stories.

The number of doses is the most the state has received so far during the pandemic, DeWine says.

Over 120,000 claims for traditional unemployment were filed in Ohio in the last week. At least 21,000 are suspected to be fraudulent, bringing the total of claims flagged for fraud to 127,000 in the last month. But it may be a while before it’s known how big the fraud really is, and who can be blamed for it.

Fraud in the state’s unemployment system cost Ohio more than $330 million in just the last three months of last year. And there could still be fraud among more than a quarter of a million claims flagged this summer.

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

Parents and other caregivers of children who are learning at home while schools are closed – even for part of the week – can receive weekly cash benefits, regardless of whether they would normally qualify for unemployment. That’s according to guidance released at the end of August from the U.S. Department of Labor about who is eligible for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA). The program, part of the federal government’s COVID-19 relief plan, is aimed at those affected by the virus who are not eligible for regular unemployment benefits.

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Ohioans receiving unemployment benefits can expect an additional $300 weekly starting mid-to-late September. The payments will be retroactive, going back to Aug. 1. Ohio Restaurant Association (ORA) President John Baker told ideastream those additional funds are “really a lifeline” for many restaurant employees, whose industry has been particularly hard hit by the pandemic.