Have you heard of the recent Ohio Pandemic Unemployment Benefits Lawsuit yet? Well, this one’s pretty interesting actually. How? Oh, well for those who don’t know, during the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a program implemented by the federal government, and then? Well, this wasn’t just any program to implement basic rules, nah, this was there to give some extra unemployment benefits to people who lost their jobs during the pandemic. You may think like that is a good thing and a good initiative overall, but Ohio State doesn’t think that way. Sure, at first, Ohio actually signed up for this program, but then, we saw Governor Mike DeWine end Ohio’s participation early, even though the program was supposed to last until September.
Why did he do that specifically? Like, what was the reason behind this strict decision? Well, he went on to say that there actually were enough jobs available and so many people just aren’t signing up for those jobs, and that’s how the extra money/benefits were just stopping people from going back to work.
As per the data that is already out, about 300,000 Ohioans were left out with this decision alone and they weren’t financially supported by the Pandemic Unemployment Benefits program, even though they were supposed to or expecting to get this money. The actual reason why this lawsuit is in action is because people say that the money is actually coming from the federal government, so the states have no say in it, and that’s why people were kinda shocked to see Ohio state intervene and stop the funds.
Why People Are So Angry About This
If we go into the specifics, well, as per the pandemic unemployment benefits program, people were getting about $300 per week. But then came the Ohio state’s decision, and this was paused for 10 weeks, which adds up to about $3000 per person. And if you do the maths here, multiply that by 300,000 people and the total amount Ohio workers missed out was around $900 million, which is mind-boggling if you think about it for a sec. So now you get why people are so angry about this?
People are particularly angry about the fact that the money was actually set aside by the federal government, not the state itself. So why do they even turn it down? Though, there still were some groups like the Ohio Chamber of Commerce and the Ohio Restaurant Association that supported DeWine’s decision.
The Big Legal Battle That Followed
Sure, when back in July 2021, this lawsuit was filed, it was kinda a lengthy one, and the legal process was super long too. Though, back in 2022, the Ohio Supreme Court even went on to dismiss the case, saying that the program has already ended, so why make this chaos now, like this lawsuit doesn’t matter now?
Though, somehow this lawsuit kept on going, and now, fast forward to February 2025, a judge in Franklin County, Michael Holbrook, finally ruled that Ohio was wrong to reject the money.
And now? Well, the judge has now ordered the state to go back to the federal government and ask for the $900 million in benefits.