Unemployed Ohioans who exhaust their jobless benefits will be eligible for 20 more weeks of assistance.

Tucked into the monstrous transportation budget approved by state lawmakers yesterday was a provision changing Ohio unemployment law, a move necessary to qualify for the additional compensation.

Up to 20 more weeks of benefits will be available to Ohioans who have exhausted their unemployment compensation after Feb. 22, said Dennis Evans, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, which oversees the state's unemployment compensation program.

So far, about 1,600 claimants have exhausted benefits since that date, he said.

The additional extended benefits will start being distributed in about six weeks since it will take that long for state regulators to make the necessary updates to their computer system, Evans said.

The benefits will be paid retroactively to Feb. 22.

In addition to the extended benefits, unemployed Ohioans soon will receive an additional $25 a week in compensation. Benefits now average about $300 a week.

Evans projected that jobless workers will start receiving the higher compensation in May, with payments retroactive to Feb. 17. Like the 20-week benefit extension, the federal government is paying the entire $25 increase.

The National Employment Law Project estimated that 35,000 Ohioans could be eligible to continue receiving benefits in the first half of 2009.

In a recent report, the organization projected that more than a half-million unemployed workers in Ohio and 12 other states plus the District of Columbia were missing out on the additional assistance because of how their state laws were written.

At issue are state laws that trigger when extended benefits are paid.

Ohio uses a ratio of the number of people receiving unemployment benefits to the number of employed workers. Under the stimulus package, federal regulators required states to use only their unemployment rate, typically a lower threshold.

To speed passage of the change in state law, Gov. Ted Strickland had urged lawmakers last week to include the provision in transportation bill -- which they did.

ccandisky@dispatch.com

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