Pandemic Unemployment Assistance

Lawsuits over those checks continue, though the federal program financing them ended last month.

It's the latest step in the fight over the federal money issued as extra help during the pandemic.

A Franklin County judge has ruled against reinstating the $300 weekly checks for unemployed Ohioans during the pandemic that were discontinued by Gov. Mike DeWine last month. The judge said the law is clear that DeWine wasn’t obligated to continue the program for around 200,000 Ohioans. But the suit isn't over.

A Franklin County judge is expected to rule in the coming days on a lawsuit that seeks to restore the $300 weekly checks that the federal government was providing to unemployed people through September. Ohio became one of 26 states that ended the program last month.

Ohio’s unemployment rate is 5%, just slightly higher than it was before the double-digit spike from the pandemic last year. “Help Wanted” and "Now Hiring” signs are common sights, especially at restaurants and retail stores. And some businesses are actively advertising they’ll pay well above Ohio’s minimum wage of $8.80, along with signing bonuses. So why aren’t they finding workers? The answer may surprise you.

Gov. Mike DeWine says ending the extra financial help will enable employers to fill jobs, but others think the move is a bad idea.

The U.S. senator is asking the state to stop providing the $300 weekly federal checks to those who are out of work.

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.

The top leader of the Ohio Senate addresses the system's challenges and talks about what's being done to overcome them.

ODJFS has identified 77,000 claims in the past two weeks as fraudulent, adding to the thousands of claims already marked as fake in the unemployment compensation system.