Ohio
Long wait times, no answers: Workers frustrated after Ohio withholds tax refunds over unemployment claims
![Long wait times, no answers: Workers frustrated after Ohio withholds tax refunds over unemployment claims](https://ewscripps.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/7a6720c/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2538x1332+0+39/resize/1200x630!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fewscripps.brightspotcdn.com%2Fde%2F1e%2F42c8fb7349a39b25f26896ce5232%2Ftax-forms-generic.png)
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Sharon Ganoe said she is literally paying for someone else’s crime.
The Springfield Township resident said the Ohio Department of Taxation withheld her 2023 tax refund to offset a debt from a fraudulent unemployment claim filed in her name.
“I’m paying on a debt that somebody else accrued,” she said. “And they did it fraudulently.”
Despite spending hours on hold with three different state agencies, she said she has been unable to reach anyone who can help her.
“I just wonder if anybody is even really working there,” she said.
How it started
Ganoe said she and her husband, Barry, received an Offset Notice from the Ohio Department of Taxation in February. It said the agency was considering withholding their tax refund to offset their debt.
“We’re like, ‘What?!’ because we weren’t aware of any money that we owed,” she said.
After making several phone calls, Ganoe said she learned her identity was stolen. She said a crook filed an unemployment claim during the pandemic using her previous name and an old address.
Ganoe said she then filed a fraud claim with the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services, reported it to OH|ID, and made more calls to state agencies in an attempt to receive her refund.
“This has become a project for me,” she said. “One that I don’t want.”
But it didn’t work. Ohio kept their refund.
“It infuriates me that they wouldn’t listen to me,” she said.
How it happened
“The agency is not doing a good enough job to identify where is fraud really taking place,” Zach Schiller said. Schiller is the research director for Policy Matters Ohio, a nonpartisan, nonprofit research institute.
He has researched and written about problems with Ohio’s outdated and underfunded unemployment system for two decades.
I first talked to Schiller in January after a Parma business owner was told to back his pandemic benefits.
Ohio says Parma business owner has to pay back $26,000 in pandemic benefits because of missed deadline
Ohio says Parma business owner has to pay back pandemic benefits
“The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services is not sufficiently funded to support the level of service that Ohioans deserve and need,” he said.
Schiller said efforts have been made to modernize the state’s system, but it still falls short of what is needed to provide adequate customer service.
“We are not in a pandemic, we’re not in a high unemployment situation,” he said. “So why can’t the agency answer phone calls in a timely manner?”
ODJFS Director of Communications Bill Teets said the state is working to improve customer service, including reducing wait times.
He sent us the following statement:
“In March, the contact center had 65 FTE (full time employees). Since then, 33 additional employees completed training and are now on the phones. We are in the process of hiring 30 more. Those will likely start training in June, so they’ll start “coming online” this fall. So, in short, over this year, we’ll have double our contact center staff to more than 120 full time employees. For comparison, we had approximately 40 in the pre-pandemic era.”
He said the state has created a callback feature so callers do not need to wait on hold. Currently, the average time for a callback is 4 hours, according to ODJFS.
He also encouraged workers to use the ODJFS Unemployment website to find answers to their questions.
How it’s going
So, how many Ohio taxpayers’ refunds are being withheld in connection with unemployment claims?
In an e-mail, an Ohio Department of Taxation spokesperson wrote that the agency withheld 248,262 tax refunds this year.
In another e-mail, an ODJFS spokesperson wrote that “as of May 9, 2024, ODJFS has 465,814 cases in active debt collections with the Ohio Attorney General since March 2020.”
But no one we talked to with the Ohio Department of Taxation, Ohio Attorney General’s Office, or Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services answered our questions about the number of tax refunds withheld in connection with unemployment claims this year.
However, ODJFS Public Information Program Administrator Tom Betti provided us with the following timeline on unemployment overpayment appeals and the collection process:
- ODJFS discovers a claimant may not be eligible for a previously paid week.
- ODJFS contacts the claimant and requests information specific to their eligibility and weeks. Claimants are notified that they have five days to respond to our requests.
- If there is no response, or the information provided establishes the claimant was not eligible for unemployment benefits, ODJFS issues a Determination of Unemployment Compensation Benefits (Determination), which spells out the ineligibility issue in question, the week(s) of ineligibility, any associated overpayments, and any penalties for fraud.
- The Determination also provides information for repayment, as well as outstanding debt referred to the Ohio Attorney General’s Office for collection, which may include state and federal income tax withholding.
- The Determination also provides information on appeal rights, how to appeal, and deadlines to appeal (21 calendar days after the date issued).
- ODJFS has 21 days to review an appeal and issue a Directors Redetermination (Redetermination). The Redetermination provides the appellant with the decision and reasoning, repayment information, and appeal rights, how to appeal, and deadlines to appeal (21 calendar days after the date issued).
- Appeals to Redeterminations are transferred to the Unemployment Compensation Review Commission (UCRC), and a hearing is scheduled. The UCRC has 21 days to review an appeal, conduct a hearing, and issue a decision. The Hearing decision includes the details of the ineligibility issue, the weeks, and repayment amounts and methods. It also includes information on appeal rights, how to appeal, and deadlines to appeal (21 calendar days after the date issued).
- Appeals to UCRC decisions, or Requests for Review, are reviewed by the full Unemployment Compensation Review Commission, and a decision is issued to the appellant, which includes appeal rights, methods, and deadlines (30 calendar days after the date issued).
- Appeals to Requests for Review should be filed with the county common pleas court where the claimant lives or was employed.
- Determinations and Decisions become final once applicable appeal deadlines have expired.
- Once a Determination or Decision becomes final, all associated debt becomes collectible. ODJFS takes collection action through the Determination repayment language and overpayment notices.
- All associated outstanding debt is certified to the Ohio Attorney General (OAG) for collection after 66 days. The OAG has various collection methods, including mail/phone outreach, third-party collectors, and special council, as well as offsets to state income tax refunds, Ohio lottery, and Ohio casino/racinos.
“There’s a lack of inter-agency communication,” Barry Ganoe, Sharon’s husband, said. “The left hand doesn’t know what the right hand is doing.”
Ganoe said the state should have figured out the fraudulent claim filed in his wife’s previous name was fraudulent.
After all, he noted, she changed her name to Ganoe when they got married in 2014.
Their refund was only $411. But Sharon won’t give up on getting her money back.
“I’m afraid somewhere in the future they’ll send us another letter saying we owe $20,000 dollars or something,” she said. “Plus, the fact it’s not right.”
News 5 Investigators have reported on problems with Ohio’s unemployment system since the pandemic started.
ODJFS said it identified approximately $6.9 billion in fraud and non-fraudulent overpayments during the pandemic.
This is not the first time efforts to reclaim those funds and reduce fraud have led to problems for Ohio workers. Last summer, I revealed some Ohio workers were temporarily locked out of their accounts in an effort to prevent fraud.
Unemployed Ohio workers temporarily locked out of accounts
Unemployed Ohio workers locked out of accounts
I requested an interview with ODJFS Director Matt Damschroder for this report but was told he was unavailable.
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Ohio
Beryl's wrath to be felt as far north as Michigan, Ohio this week
![Beryl's wrath to be felt as far north as Michigan, Ohio this week](https://images.foxweather.com/static.foxweather.com/www.foxweather.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1024/512/GettyImages-2157330180.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Tropical Storm Beryl continues charging toward Texas Sunday morning, and forecasters still expect it to continue strengthening before making landfall in Texas early on Monday morning.
While Beryl is expected to bring hurricane conditions to Texas on Monday, strong winds and rain from the cyclone will move into the Midwest by midweek.
Michigan, Indiana, Illinois and Ohio are among the states that will feel the impact of Beryl.
Once Beryl hits Texas, the cyclone is expected to travel north throughout the South and Midwest.
(FOX Weather)
Beryl’s current forecast cone shows the storm will weaken as it moves north but maintains tropical depression strength from Arkansas through Michigan throughout the week. A tropical depression is a cyclone with maximum sustained winds of 38 mph or less. Unlike tropical storms and hurricanes, tropical depressions are identified by numbers rather than names.
Current forecasts have Beryl’s remnants extending into Ohio and Michigan by the end of the workweek.
Several inches of rain are possible as the storm treks north, leading to significant flash flooding concerns.
Forecasters expect heavy rainfall to spread from eastern Texas through central Illinois by midweek.
“At this time, the higher (…) amounts focus over northwest Arkansas to central Illinois with the highest over the Ozarks. Areal averages are expected to be around 2 to 5 inches with local maximums upwards of 8 inches,” the Weather Prediction Center wrote Sunday.
![](https://media.foxweather.com/weather/TUE%20Central%20Flash%20Flood%20Outlook.png)
(FOX Weather)
Beryl formed in the Atlantic Ocean on June 29 and became the season’s first hurricane. The storm broke records throughout its trek and is expected to strengthen ahead of its impending Texas landfall.
Ohio
Muskegon Clippers pitchers struggle in relief, fall to visiting Southern Ohio
![Muskegon Clippers pitchers struggle in relief, fall to visiting Southern Ohio](https://localsportsjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Clippers-pitcher.jpg)
Ohio
Alex Palou kicks off IndyCar hybrid era with pole at Mid-Ohio
![Alex Palou kicks off IndyCar hybrid era with pole at Mid-Ohio](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/07/06/PIND/74318748007-honda-indy-200-at-mid-ohio-saturday-july-6-2024-ref-image-without-watermark-m-111349.jpg?auto=webp&crop=1079,607,x0,y56&format=pjpg&width=1200)
LEXINGTON, Ohio – With a brand-new tool at the drivers’ fingertips and countless more data figures to track and analyze, two of the best teams and drivers in IndyCar couldn’t help but make series history Saturday afternoon.
In the debut of hybrid technology in qualifying at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou edged Arrow McLaren’s Pato O’Ward by 24 ten-thousands of a second to take pole for Sunday’s 80-lap race, marking the tightest front row in the Fast 6 qualifying format’s history that dates back to 2005 (0.0027 seconds in the 2023 GMR Grand Prix on the IMS road course).
“It means he went to the bathroom before qualifying,” quipped O’Ward to thunderous laughs in the Mid-Ohio media center. “We’re all out here pushing, pushing, pushing. That’s the beauty of it and what makes it exciting and fun. I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
“It’s irritating and annoying to miss it by just that little bit. I was really happy with the lap, but there’s always more available. You find little bits and pieces here and there, but this is a really strong start for tomorrow, and it should be a good race.”
At a track that has seen nine different winners in its last 10 IndyCar races – with seven of those winners coming from the front row – starting position means everything at Mid-Ohio, particularly with a brand-new repave and where teams will be learning on the fly about how to best maximize the new 60 horsepower boosts available each lap.
‘Combatting the change’: How introduction of hybrid will (and won’t) change IndyCar in 2024
O’Ward and Palou agreed that a car, driver and team reaping the full benefits from IndyCar’s new Energy Recovery System might gain a maximum of two tenths a second per lap, making the bespoke system something too impactful to ignore – but not something to prioritize while forgetting about traditional driving and optimal car balance across an entire lap.
“You don’t want to give up one-and-a-half tenths for free that’s available to you, but it’s a lot of work to get those,” Palou said. “But it’s free lap time, so you need to take it.”
“I think tomorrow, it’ll be a challenge for everybody to see whether you’re going to keep the same strategy or change it up a little bit,” added O’Ward. “It’s become a tool for all the drivers and the teams to either make your lives a lot easier or harder. I think it will be interesting.”
The relatively small amounts of boost – drivers are allowed to use 310 kilojoules of energy from the ERS per lap, amounting to eight or so seconds of 60 additional horsepower – have made for a bit of a paradox for teams in the leadup to this weekend as they try to decipher what to tinker with and how much.
Every change leads to another – potentially leading to information overload, Palou admitted. The system isn’t expected to lead to or allow for a massive sea change in the drivers finishing on podiums, winning races or capturing poles, but it’s also something that can have just enough an impact that teams can’t ignore it entirely and solely treat it as a 100-pound brick in the back of their cars either.
“There’s too much stuff to look at now – too many options to get distracted with,” said Palou, adding that the amount of information to scroll through in the cockpit has already made an impression. “The engineers have the ability to focus on what’s really important. This morning, I was saying, ‘Let’s take a look at deploy and regen,’ and my engineer said, ‘Don’t look at that. Look at your driving first, and then focus on the percent of charge.’”
After nearly five years, it’s arrived: Explaining IndyCar’s new hybrid system
Several of Palou’s title challengers starting in a hole Sunday
Staring from pole Sunday at a track that has favored strong qualifying performances has a chance to pay big dividends for Palou, as the two-time champ enters the oval-heavy portion of the 2024 schedule starting next weekend. Yet to log an oval win among his 11 career victories that have all come in the last three-plus years, Palou currently holds a 23-point cushion over 2022 champ Will Power and 32 over his Ganassi teammate and six-time champ Scott Dixon.
Only three members of the current top-10 made Saturday’s Fast 6 – Colton Herta qualified 4th – and five of those failed to make it out of the first round, including Power (who qualified 16th and is 2nd in points), Dixon (14th/3rd), Andretti Global’s Kyle Kirkwood (15th/5th), Josef Newgarden (18th/9th) and Felix Rosenqvist (13th/10th).
Standout performances
Two of IndyCar’s young guns shined Saturday, including:
- David Malukas: qualified 3rd in just his second race back from his surgically-repaired left wrist and in his second race with Meyer Shank Racing. The 22-year-old’s results also marks the best for the team’s home track in MSR’s history.
- Christian Rasmussen: After a rough start to his rookie IndyCar campaign where he currently sits 22nd in points, the young Dane made his first career Fast 12 Saturday at Mid-Ohio. Ahead of this weekend, he’d only started inside the top-15 twice. The Ed Carpenter Racing driver qualified 9th for Sunday’s race.
How to watch, listen: IndyCar Series Mid-Ohio schedule, TV, streaming in hybrid engine debut
IndyCar qualifying results at Mid-Ohio
1. Alex Palou
2. Pato O’Ward
3. David Malukas
4. Colton Herta
5. Marcus Armstrong
6. Marcus Ericsson
7. Scott McLaughlin
8. Alexander Rossi
9. Christian Rasmussen
10. Christian Lundgaard
11. Linus Lundqvist
12. Romain Grosjean
13. Felix Rosenqvist
14. Scott Dixon
15. Kyle Kirkwood
16. Will Power
17. Nolan Siegel
18. Josef Newgarden
19. Graham Rahal
20. Rinus VeeKay
21. Santino Ferrucci
22. Agustin Canapino
23. Pietro Fittipaldi
24. Kyffin Simpson
25. Toby Sowery
26. Sting Ray Robb
27. Jack Harvey
*For undergoing an unapproved engine change by moving to their fifth of the year, Armstrong, Rosenqvist and Fittipaldi all will drop six spots on the grid for tomorrow’s race.
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