Check out Jobless benefits run out for many Ohioans | The Columbus Dispatch

Click here: Jobless benefits run out for many Ohioans The Columbus Dispatch

Jobless benefits run out for many Ohioans
If U.S. Senate fails to act on extension, 65,000 in state will fall off rolls by year's end
Thursday, October 8, 2009 3:22 AM
By Tracy Turner
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
THE HOT ISSUE
Should unemployment benefits be extended for another 13 weeks for people who cannot find work?

DispatchPolitics

The number of Ohioans who have exhausted their unemployment benefits has risen to levels not seen since the early 1980s.
At the end of September, benefits ran out for 21,000 people, and that number is expected to grow several times over by the end of the year unless more help is made available.
The U.S. Senate is debating whether to extend unemployment benefits for an additional 13 weeks, but that effort is stalled for now.
Like thousands of others, Randy Hotsinpiller of Westerville is waiting anxiously and hoping an extension passes. His benefits run out in four weeks.
"Right now, unemployment is the only thing that keeps me afloat," said Hotsinpiller, who was laid off in April after working in information technology for 27 years. "They say there's six people competing for every one job opening, but in my experience, it seems to be so many more.
"If 3 million people fall off the unemployment roll, what will happen to them? It's crucial that they get this thing passed. Unemployment benefits aren't much, but they at least keep a roof over your head."
Ohio's unemployment rate stood at 10.8 percent in August, the most-recent figure available, after dropping slightly from July. Overall, the report showed the state with 5.1 million people employed and 641,000 jobless.
At any given time, the state has had more than 300,000 citizens collecting unemployment, with an average stay of 16 weeks, causing a constant churn that's difficult to track, said Judi Cicatiello, deputy director of unemployment compensation.
"We started seeing larger groups of people exhaust their benefits in early September, but this is the first time a group this large has extended its benefits at one time" in more than 20 years, Cicatiello said. "These are certainly dire times."
The bill before the U.S. Senate would extend jobless benefits by 13 weeks to workers in Ohio and 28 other states where the unemployment rate is greater than 8.5 percent. To be eligible for those additional benefits, those in Ohio would have to exhaust the current 79 weeks they have received from both the state and federal governments.
Passage of the bill has been stalled by lawmakers who are upset that their states would be left out.
The extension would allow some unemployed workers in Ohio to eventually collect 92 weeks of benefits: the state's 26 and the federal government's 53, as well as the additional 13 federally backed weeks.
If the extension isn't passed, 65,000 Ohioans would exhaust their benefits by the end of the year, said Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who co-sponsored the bill. In central Ohio, 2,109 people are expected to exhaust their unemployment benefits this month, he said, including 1,186 in Franklin County.
"Unemployment is an insurance program, not welfare. There's broad support to extend it, and it serves as a stimulus," Brown said. "They put that money right back into the economy, money that will be spent by people looking to put bread on their table."
Brown said he hopes there will be a vote on the issue by next week, if not sooner. He said he's "very sympathetic to extending it to states that haven't been hit as hard by the recession, but my goal is to get it done as soon as possible so that people don't see their compensation expire."
In Ohio, Gov. Ted Strickland extended unemployment benefits an extra 20 weeks for Ohioans who lost their benefits in February. That extension ended last month, said Brian Harter, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. The state does not have the option to extend benefits again, he said.
One-third of the nation's 15 million unemployed people have been jobless for six months or more, according to the National Employment Law Project. The New York-based research and advocacy group said the rate is at a record high since data started being recorded in 1948.
Margie Brown is one of the statistics. The East Side resident had no idea she'd still be without work a year after being laid off from her job as an administrative assistant.
In Ohio, the average unemployment benefit is $315. The maximum amount for a worker with three or more dependents is $503 per week. Both weekly amounts are bolstered by an extra $25 from the federal government.
"Unemployment is allowing me the time to get retrained in another field because no one is hiring in what I've worked in previously," Brown said. "Without it, it'd be an extreme hardship for my family. It helps people keep our noses above the water."
If an extension of unemployment benefits is passed by the federal government, Cicatiello said, the state would be able to start distributing payments after 45 days.
"We've been doing everything we can to get ready for it," she said. "We know how dire these times are and how vitally important unemployment is for people. We know we are their primary safety net."
tturner@dispatch.com