Ohio, feds agree on $300 weekly for unemployed
By Jim Provance / The Blade
Mon, 10 Aug 2020 16:50:00 GMT
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COLUMBUS — Ohio and the federal government agreed Monday to resume extra unemployment compensation assistance in the amount of $300 weekly on top of regular state benefits.
Gov. Mike DeWine had said Sunday that he’d been looking at whether Ohio could afford to partner with the federal government to provide weekly assistance of $400, with the state picking up 25 percent of that — a possibility created under an executive order President Trump signed over the weekend.
But DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said the state received additional information Sunday night from the U.S. Department of Labor that offered the $300 option with the federal government providing the entire amount.
A federal supplement of $600 a week had expired July 31, and Congress has been unable to agree on extending at least some portion of that.
The change in benefit amount means the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will again have to adjust its computer system once it gets final authorization from the federal government. It had taken weeks for the department to begin providing the additional $600 in benefits that came with the first federal coronavirus stimulus law.
“The good news is the benefit is retroactive” to the $600 payments’ expiration, Mr. Tierney said.
Ohio's unemployment compensation trust fund has already run out of money and is borrowing from the federal government to meet its obligations. It was unclear whether the state’s $100 share of the $400 check would have been added to that debt.
“That analysis was ongoing,” Mr. Tierney said. “No determination had been made on the feasibility of that. Regardless, we would work with the General Assembly since they're our partners in operating the unemployment compensation system.
“With the first option we would have had to work on additional appropriations,” he said. “With the second option, we can proceed more quickly and at no additional cost to the state.”
A bill passed by the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives would have continued the $600 payments. Some Republicans, however, had questioned whether that amount led to some receiving more in unemployment than they were paid while employed.
“The $600 in unemployment compensation Ohioans received from the federal government was a lifeline...,” said Caitlin Johnson, spokesman for the left-leaning Policy Matters Ohio. “The Trump Administration’s plan to provide $300 a week in federal benefits doesn’t nearly go far enough in helping Ohioans make ends meet.
“The President can and should be fully leveraging the power of the federal government to fully support Americans who need help and keep the economy moving,” she said. “In the time it will take to get Ohio’s antiquated unemployment compensation system up and running with this benefit, this so-called solution will leave more than half-a-million working people without any additional relief for weeks.”
For the week ending Aug. 1, the state reported 25,952 new claims for assistance. Another 404,434 filed continuing claims. In all, nearly 1.5 million Ohioans have filed claims over the last 20 weeks.