Restarting unemployment claim, how long?

by Mike

(Ohio)

I live in Ohio and I lost my job when the business owner fell behind on rent payments and was evicted. Since I lost my job through no fault of my own, I applied for unemployment and was approved. I obtained a part-time job (1-2 days a week) while I continue to seek full-time employment. For the past few weeks, I have been reporting this income to unemployment when I file my weekly claim. For one week, my earnings at this part-time job exceeded my allowed benefit amount. In the following weeks, my earnings fell below the allowed amount and I would like to resume receiving unemployment for those weeks my income is below the allowed amount until I find full-time work. I was told since I went over for one week and had a another week where I was under the amount, they are holding my payments until I restart my claim. I restarted my claim 10 days ago and I still haven’t received anything yet, and my question is, how long does it typically take to start receiving payments after your claim is restarted. Any info would be helpful, thanks.

Hi Mike,

Sounds pretty funky to me.

Please understand .. I might not know every single little thing about how Ohio or other states may work this part of the process .. although I do know how my state does it.

What I can tell you is that in most states .. including the one I live in .. you don’t have to restart a claim unless you don’t file .. regardless if you happen to go over your benefit amount one week .. you would report the earnings and they just wouldn’t pay you for that week, but you should file.

The claim needs to be restarted or “reopened” when you stop filing. In my state .. it’s three consecutive weeks and they actually phone you with a recording that warns you they are about to close the claim and you will have to reopen ..

So, what am I’m saying? I don’t know .. you will have to call the ODJFS and find out from them.

Isn’t it amazing how quickly an unemployment department will stop paying benefits, but when it comes time to start paying again .. they will drag it out as long as possible.

And regardless of the amount of earnings .. if you are working less than full-time .. file the continued claim for each week reporting all earnings.

Sorry I couldn’t help with a definitive answer (there’s very few, you know) Mike, I suppose the hold up might be that they want to make sure you aren’t refusing work now from that part-time job.