Eligible Ohioans could receive thousands in COVID checks, if Gov. DeWine asks for the cash
Ohioans receiving weekly unemployment checks from federal COVID-19 relief funds during peak pandemic days could see those checks again, if the governor asks for the money.
A Franklin County judge ordered Republican Gov. Mike DeWine's administration Wednesday to request available funds as part of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) program to reinstate weekly payments he prematurely cut off in June of 2021.
It's not yet clear when those payments could be in the pockets of Ohioans or when DeWine will ask for them, but the payments averaged $300 per week over a ten week period.
The supplement checks were scheduled to go through the end of September of that year, per the federal government's program, and were issued in addition to state aid and at no cost to Ohio government, according to Marc Dann of DannLaw, who brought the case against the governor's office in 2021.
But DeWine, along with several other Republican governors at the time, said they "didn't want it anymore."
Judge Michael Holbrook in the Franklin County Common Pleas Court ruled that the DeWine administration violated Ohio law by ending the federal assistance program before its official termination. Holbrook ordered the governor to "take all action necessary" to reinstate those federal benefits and get them from the United States Department of Labor.
Dann said his firm was alerted by the federal labor department a few months ago that the money is available, "all DeWine has to do is ask for them."
More: Over $300,000 of COVID-19 unemployment benefits fraudulently released, Ohio probe finds
A spokesperson for DeWine did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.
"These are people who are going to immediately spend all this money to either pay their bills or to buy groceries. They'll be spending this money with Ohio businesses," Dann said. "There's just about $100 million that we could get for free from the federal government that will be injected into Ohio's economy instantly."
"All he has to do is ask, so why he didn't do it without a judge telling him to is a fascinating question," Dann said.
Samantha Hendrickson is The Dispatch's medical business and health care reporter. She can be reached at shendrickson@dispatch.com
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: How Ohio residents unemployed during COVID could receive payments
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