MOUNT VERNON — The economic downturn will make holiday spending a challenge for many this year, especially those who are unemployed. But for those whose 13 weeks of previously extended benefits were to run out at holiday time, there is a small measure of good news. The Unemployment Compensation Act of 2008, signed by President Bush Saturday, extends the current 13-week Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program by an additional seven weeks.
According to Sherrod Brown, U.S. Senator for Ohio, after release of Ohio’s unemployment figures for August, the state’s jobless rate of 7.4 percent is the highest since 1992.
“We need to put Ohio middle class families ahead of special interests,” Brown said in a statement regarding the unemployment rate. “Under President Bush’s economic leadership, Ohio middle class families have faced lay-offs, skyrocketing gas and food prices, and record home foreclosure rates. Our state now has the highest joblessness rate in 16 years. By October, more than 24,000 Ohioans will exhaust their unemployment insurance.”
Brown said current conditions could affect anyone.
“No community is immune to the current employment squeeze,” Brown said. “There are men and women who want to support their families and save for the future. They’re Ohioans who want to work but can’t find jobs in this economy. Since October, more than 50,000 Ohioans have exhausted their emergency federal funds. With an unemployment rate in our state of more than 7 percent, workers and their families need unemployment insurance to make ends meet.”
Brown went on to say that we have a responsibility to help these people find work and extending the current benefits will help those families on the brink of financial disaster.
“It is perhaps the single best way to stimulate the economy,” Brown explained. “When you provide unemployment benefits, those dollars go right into the community because people are spending it at the local hardware store, local grocery store.”
The Unemployment Compensation Act of 2008, signed by President Bush Saturday, extends the current 13-week Emergency Unemployment Compensation Program by an additional seven weeks.
The bill will provide seven additional weeks of benefits for those whose compensation has been exhausted, with the exception of states with unemployment rates higher than 6 percent which will receive 13 additional weeks. Ohio's unemployment rate is 7 percent.
There are several options to chose from when filing a new application for Ohio unemployment benefits or reopening an existing Ohio claim. You may access the service online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at: http://unemployment.ohio.gov.
Those needing to apply can also file by telephone at 1-877-644-6562 or TTY at 1-888-642-8203.
Business hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, except holidays. When you call, remember to have paper and pencil available.
Other items needed when applying are:
•Your social security number and either your driver license or state ID number.
•Your name, address, telephone number, and e-mail address.
•The name, address, telephone number, and dates of your employment with each employer where you worked during the past six weeks of employment.
•If you had out-of-state employment within the past 18 months, you must provide the name address, telephone number and dates of your employment for each out-of-state employer during that period.
•If you were separated from military service with any branch of the U.S. Armed Forces within the past 18 months, your discharge papers (Form DD-214-member 4 copy).
•If you were employed by the federal government within the past 18 months, the SF-8 and/or SF-50 form given to you by your government employer at the time of your separation.
•The reason you became unemployed from each employer.
•If claiming dependents, your spouse’s name and social security number, dependents’ name(s), social security number(s), and date(s) of birth.
•Alien Registration Number and the expiration date of your work authorization (if you are not a U.S. Citizen or National).
• Your regular occupation and job skills.
Although the Knox County Job & Family Services does not handle unemployment insurance claims, it does help the unemployed file for benefits and find work.
“We don’t handle that at the county level,” said Roger Shooter. “The extension for benefits is automatic. If you are on unemployment it will automatically continue.
“What they’ve done at the state level is create a black box. You call a number and you get somebody in the black box and they will set you up for unemployment (benefits). It’s all done by touch-tone phone.”
Shooter said it is all very impersonal now, not like it used to be. But FJS and Opportunity Knox try to give a face to the process. Neither office is the unemployment office but each can help with information on the application process and for a job search.
“They used to take time with you but now you’re just a number,” he explained. “We personalize it. We’ll sit down and try to assess what you need to do, what training you might need and where the needs are for jobs. We try to take a more personal approach.”
Shooter said the latest figures for unemployment were from September and showed Knox County with a 6.4 percent rate of unemployment; lower than the state average of 7.3 percent.
“Actually we have been going down since July,” he said. “We were at 6.8 percent in July, 6.7 in August. So we are one of the counties that hasn’t been hit as hard as the other ones.”
