by Erica
(South Carolina)
My husband was transferred from Ohio to South Carolina, I am a breast cancer patient and have to stay on my husbands insurance policy. My teenage boys and I stayed in Ohio an additional month in order to rent out our house and get things packed. I had a job as a bookkeeper that I had been at for almost 7 years. 3 weeks before I said anything about moving, my employer told me I would be layed off come January 1st, (which was 7 weeks away)so the next day when this came up again I told them I would be moving because of my husbands transfer, I then gave a 2 week written notice. Once in South Carolina, it took over 2 months for me to gain employment, after the first week of not finding a job, I went a head and applied for unemployment through the state of Ohio. They have denied me twice now, stating no benefits paid for following a spouse, I would like to appeal it, but not sure on what grounds. Can you please help me with this??
Hi Erica,
I’m referring you to this page at the United States Department of Labor
They have just made the charts for 2009 available and it looks like there has been a change in Ohio’s statutes regarding moving to follow a spouse. When you get to the above page click on 2009 and then “Nonmonetary”. The information is in Table 5-2 and below that table there are footnotes. 8/ says that Ohio now disqualifies until you earn $60 or one half of the average weekly wage, whichever is less.
But you say you are now employed again, so you would no longer qualify for unemployment unless it’s part-time work and then you may possibly qualify for partial unemployment benefits.
If your present job ends with a qualifying separation you shouldn’t have a problem collecting then.
I realize this isn’t what you were hoping for, but believe me…it’s better than the news I would have given yesterday before I saw the new publication.
South Carolina only allows unemployment for this reason to military spouses.