Ohio has some work to do to catch up with other states in getting expanded unemployment benefits out to laid-off workers. The state says it will have the additional $600 weekly benefit ready to go next week.

Ohio has struggled to keep up with the onslaught of regular claims for unemployment benefits from workers who have lost their job because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Now, the state has fallen behind some of its neighbors when it comes to getting additional and expanded unemployment benefits out to workers, according to Policy Matters Ohio.

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New federal stimulus programs give unemployed workers an extra $600 a week in benefits along with making workers eligible for benefits who typically aren’t, such as low-wage workers along with those who are self-employed or independent contractors.

The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has said the additional $600 could reach workers by the end of next week, and that it likely will be early May before the agency is positioned to process claims for workers previously ineligible for benefits.

The department said Wednesday that it "has dedicated staff and resources to getting (the additional) unemployment benefits in the hands of Ohioans who need them as quickly as possible.

"The additional $600 will be paid without the claimant needing to apply again. The first check will also include retroactive weeks of eligibility," the state said.

Despite the processing issues, Ohio should be moving at least as fast as other states, said Zach Shiller, research director for Policy Matters Ohio. "I’m glad to hear those are going to be going out even if we’re somewhat behind," he said.

By comparison, Michigan, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky have started making the additional payments, Policy Matters said.

At least 32 states will provide the extra federal benefits by the end of this week, the Associated Press reported Wednesday. California, the most-populous state, provided its first extra payment on Sunday.

But several large states — among them Washington, Colorado, Wisconsin and Nevada — were still struggling to process those payouts as of late Tuesday.

The disparity reflects the patchwork nature of America's unemployment benefits system: Benefits and eligibility rules vary sharply from state to state. And the slow and fitful distribution of payments points to the antiquated information technology that many states still rely upon for unemployment payments. Roughly two-thirds use a near-obsolete programming language, COBOL, that dates to the 1970s.

The problems with old technology in Ohio and elsewhere weren’t much of an issue a few weeks ago when unemployment rates were hovering at 50-year lows, but that has changed with much of the state and U.S. economy shut down to fight COVID-19.

The state has received 696,519 claims for the three weeks that ended Saturday, about twice the number of claims it received for all of 2019.

Workers have struggled to file claims for benefits and say it has been difficult to reach anyone on the phone despite calling repeatedly. The state, for its part, says it has bolstered the ranks of staff handling calls and added servers and hardware to handle the influx of claims.

Still, the state said Wednesday that it is having technical problems on its website.

We apologize for the inconvenience and we're working as fast as we can to resolve this issue. Thank you for your continued patience. #InThisTogetherOhio #EveryClaimIsImportant pic.twitter.com/2WLYqnmaN5

— OhioJFS (@OhioJFS) April 15, 2020

Separately, Schiller said Ohio is nowhere near ready to handle claims from the group of workers newly eligible for federally funded benefits.

They include workers who have lost their jobs because of the coronavirus outbreak but don’t meet the state’s traditional requirements to receive unemployment benefits.

Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.

mawilliams@dispatch.com

@BizMarkWilliams