4020 E 5th Ave., Columbus, OH 43219

M-F: 8:00am-5:00pm

Initial claims may be made through the website anytime or by phone M-F: 8:00am-5:00pm. Claims may be made on the date of separation or on the date that the reduction in hours and wages starts. Clients will need to report their status weekly (this can only be done through the website). In situations where the Dept. has been notified of a mass layoff in advance, affected workers will be notified directly about the registration time and process through the employer/union. Go to website or phone for more information on unemployment qualifications. Once the initial claim has been accepted, clients will need to make a weekly claim in order to recieve their payments. Due to a high volume of claims, the agency is asking clients to submit weekly claims on specific days of the week based on the first letter of their last name. Sundays: A-H; Mondays: I-P; Tuesdays: P-Z; Wednesdays through Saturdays: any letter of the alphabet. Weekly claims can be made through the website, or by phone M-F: 7:00am-7:00pm; Sa: 9:00am-5:00pm; Su: 9:00am-1:00pm. Those who have been denied a claim may phone the Unemployment Appeals Department for more information about appealing the claim M-F: 8:00am-5:00pm. This agency used to offer Pandemic Unemplyment Assistance (PUA) which was a special type of unemployment for those whose employment was was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications for that program ended in June 2021. Existing or former claimants may still call the PUA Call Center or log in through the website, should they need to. Appeals for PUA may be made through the website. For those who returned to work and stopped filing claims but were laid off again: If more than 12 months have passed since they last received benefits, they will need to submit a new application for benefits.

Free

Open to anyone age 18 or older in the state of Ohio who has been laid off from work covered by state unemployment laws and who has lost their job or had a reduction in hours and wages through no fault of their own. Individuals must have at least 20 weeks of employment and an average weekly wage of $280 during the base period of the claim. Self-employed individuals who have been solely self-employed for the last year or more may not meet the monetary requirements to establish a claim because the wages they earned from self-employment are not considered "covered" under unemployment law. NOTE: In cases of disaster, eligibility for unemployment may be relaxed or expanded to appropriate groups of people, for example those who are displaced from their homes, those who are self-employed, etc.