COLUMBUS, Ohio — The director for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services announced Friday the organization has mostly cleared a backlog of appeals with its traditional and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) programs.
Director Matt Damschroder said only about 40 appeals, also known as redeterminations, in its traditional system involving interstate or fact-finding issues remain.
There were more than 177,000 appeals in July 2021. Of those, 146,000 were older than 21 days, which is the target date for addressing appeals.
In order to combat the backlog, Damschroder said ODJFS began tracking progress and conducting bi-weekly forecasting that took into consideration factors such as the current volume of appeals and rate of processing.
Damschroder said the strategy allowed them to do a better job of projecting staffing and overtime needs, which led to applying the resources needed such as assigning and cross-training more staff.
“The historic number of claims throughout the pandemic brought about unprecedented appeals,” Damschroder said. “This summer we put together an aggressive plan to address these appeals, and thanks to the efforts of our staff, we’ve been able to do just that.”
Claimants or employers who disagree with an initial decision from ODJFS about an unemployment claim can appeal or request a redetermination decision.
Since the start of the pandemic, ODJFS has issued more than 558,000 redeterminations. Before the pandemic, there were around 45,000 redeterminations annually.
