Deadline looms for federal unemployment benefits
Posted November 07, 2012 in Press Releases
Congress has until Dec. 29 to continue helping jobless Ohioans
The clock is ticking on tens of thousands of Ohioans receiving federally paid unemployment compensation benefits, which will be cut off at the end of the year unless Congress acts to reauthorize them.
So far this year, federal programs have paid out more than $780 million to unemployed Ohioans, according to the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. But more than 150,000 Ohioans will either exhaust those benefits or no longer qualify for federal benefits at the end of the year without government intervention, the jobs department calculates.
The results will be “immediate and negative,” resulting in less spending and slower economic growth throughout the state, said Zach Schiller, research director for Policy Matters Ohio, a Cleveland-based think-tank.
“Unemployment insurance gives people income that they would not otherwise have, and it allows them to continue to make expenditures that ripple throughout the community,” Schiller said. “The money is spent, not saved. And it helps those that are most affected by a weak economy.”
Beginning in 2009, displaced workers could receive up to 99 weeks of aid through a combination of state benefits