Out-of-work Ohioans in a few weeks will skip the unemployment line for online, as the state replaces a more than 20-year-old system with the new Internet-based method for making claims, tracking payments and filing appeals.COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP)— Out-of-work Ohioans in a few weeks will skip the unemployment line for online, as the state replaces a more than 20-year-old system with the new Internet-based method for making claims, tracking payments and filing appeals.
People still will have the option of filing claims by telephone,
the method nearly all applicants use now, since the last in-person
unemployment offices closed in June after being phased out over two
years, said Dennis Evans, spokesman for the Department of Job and
Family Services.
Research in 36 other states that introduced the computer system
for Ohio Job Insurance found that about three-fifths of claimants
eventually use the online system, assistant director Melissa
DeLisio said.
The agency scheduled the switch to the $43 million system for
Aug. 17 because this month typically is the slowest time of year
for new claims.
The new system also will combine weekly and monthly unemployment
insurance statements into one document and allow paperless
management of unemployment insurance accounts and responses to
workers claims for the states 230,000 employers, she said.
About 530,000 people filed new unemployment claims last year,
and the state paid $1.4 billion in benefits.
Tom Hayes, who will retire as director in October, said
Wednesday that in his three-year tenure the department has replaced
or is starting work on replacing six of the seven major computer
systems running agency programs.
The department is avoiding the pitfalls of its self-made child
support database that led to $17 million in fines to the federal
government from 1997 to 1999. The Support Enforcement Tracking
System incorrectly withheld payments from former welfare
recipients, and the state ultimately paid about $15 million in
overdue payments to 67,444 parents. It was declared in compliance
this February.
The problem was that the state tried with that system to combine
individual county programs, then just kept working on the software
itself, Hayes said. Now the agency looks for existing computer
systems that already are working in other states and are in the
public domain so theyre low cost, he said.
People still will have the option of filing claims by telephone,
the method nearly all applicants use now, since the last in-person
unemployment offices closed in June after being phased out over two
years, said Dennis Evans, spokesman for the Department of Job and
Family Services.
Research in 36 other states that introduced the computer system
for Ohio Job Insurance found that about three-fifths of claimants
eventually use the online system, assistant director Melissa
DeLisio said.
The agency scheduled the switch to the $43 million system for
Aug. 17 because this month typically is the slowest time of year
for new claims.
The new system also will combine weekly and monthly unemployment
insurance statements into one document and allow paperless
management of unemployment insurance accounts and responses to
workers claims for the states 230,000 employers, she said.
About 530,000 people filed new unemployment claims last year,
and the state paid $1.4 billion in benefits.
Tom Hayes, who will retire as director in October, said
Wednesday that in his three-year tenure the department has replaced
or is starting work on replacing six of the seven major computer
systems running agency programs.
The department is avoiding the pitfalls of its self-made child
support database that led to $17 million in fines to the federal
government from 1997 to 1999. The Support Enforcement Tracking
System incorrectly withheld payments from former welfare
recipients, and the state ultimately paid about $15 million in
overdue payments to 67,444 parents. It was declared in compliance
this February.
The problem was that the state tried with that system to combine
individual county programs, then just kept working on the software
itself, Hayes said. Now the agency looks for existing computer
systems that already are working in other states and are in the
public domain so theyre low cost, he said.
Government IT 
