CLEVELAND — Rebecca Rubenstein is a private school teacher who was furloughed shortly after the coronavirus pandemic hit. She tried to apply for benefits, but kept getting the same response on her account with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
"They kept coming back, ‘denied, denied, denied,'" she lamented to 3News. "I was like, 'Why am I being denied my weekly claim?'"
Just as frustrating, Rubenstein's colleagues had all received their checks, even though they had been furloughed the same time. For 10 weeks she battled this, before contacting us claiming, "I couldn't get through. I even tried calling on the Spanish line and I don't speak Spanish. I would call upwards of over 200 times a day."
She eventually found that the reason for her denial was a "Break in Claim."
Kimberly Hall, Director of The Department of Job and Family Services, told us that occurs when there's a discrepancy in an applicant’s weekly certification.
"When someone either files a new claim inadvertently, or when your weekly certification says something different that suggests to the system I'm now employed again," she explained. "Or, the original reason that I said I was employed is not now the same reason."
Turns out, Rebecca had filed the day she was furloughed, which was mid-week. However, her employer had paid her for the whole week.
"They have a specific way of stating that I got money, and they have to somehow break it down to see how much you can make and how much they have to pay you," she said.
Hall says the quickest way to fix that, is to "work with our agents to have it manually restored which, as you know, isn't as quick as we want it to be. It's getting quicker, but it does require an agent to go in and fix the error to restart it."
And that's what we were able to facilitate: Shortly after we reached out to ODJFS, Rebecca told us, "All of these things finally popped up saying, 'Oh, you get your initial bonus, you get your initial money,' and then I finally got my money that Tuesday."
Her check included all the back pay she was due, but just as important as the money, she said, "I'm excited to be back and at least see some of my kids."
If you have questions about your unemployment benefits, here is a link which provides answers to many issues. We've also provided more information on the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program and the 13 week extension.