PENINSULA, Ohio — An Ohio lawmaker has called for action following a News 5 investigation that revealed how Ohio is making mistakes involving your tax dollars.
"Me and my colleagues, the further that we look into this, the more concerned we have become," said Bride Rose Sweeney (D-16).
News 5 Investigators found the state's efforts to claw back fake unemployment claims have caused real problems for workers.
"It is clear to me it is not the Ohioans who are at fault, but the state and the process that they set up," Sweeney said.
She called for Ohio to end its efforts to seek back pandemic unemployment benefits from workers who did nothing wrong.
"It shouldn't be Ohioans, hardworking Ohioans, that are going to be the ones fixing, cleaning up this mess," she said.
'Wreaking havoc'
Melissa Salamon, senior attorney at The Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, said the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services admitted it mistakenly sent some pandemic-era unemployment claims to collections.
"It was, it did not matter if it was a finding of fraud or if it was identity verification, they were just all sent over," she said. "I think the state is creating, wreaking havoc."
Peninsula resident Jennifer Stancil is one of the hundreds of thousands of Ohio workers who were sent a collection notice demanding repayment of their pandemic unemployment benefits.
"I thought it was a mistake," she said.
The collection notice said she owes Ohio over $28,000.
Her calls to ODJFS for help have gone unanswered.
"That’s where it became a major cloud that started looming over my head and has not gone away," she said.
Sweeney said state lawmakers officers have been flooded with calls from constituents in the same situation.
"People that I represent are worried about how this is going to impact their bottom line, what does this mean for their credit score, what happens if they can't pay this money back?" she said.
She said she has had multiple conversations with ODJFS and the Ohio Attorney General's office, but so far, no one has offered any solutions.
"Until the vast majority of these Ohioans are taken care of, I'm not going to stop working," she said. "And if it does mean that we can pass a bill, we need to pass a bill, we should do that. "
In the meantime, Sweeney said Ohioans should contact their state lawmaker for help if they have received a collection notice and do not believe they owe Ohio money.
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