CLEVELAND — A Cleveland resident said she is owed over $5000 in unemployment funds after the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS) abruptly stopped paying her benefits.
"This is a system that's in place to support me should I need it - and I did - and it was just a complete nightmare and a headache," Jenna Berris said.
A money mystery
After she lost her job last September, Berris applied for unemployment benefits from the ODJFS.
Initially, the process worked as it was supposed to. She filed for benefits each week, along with submitting proof she was searching for a new position.
"The first couple weeks, I got my money," she said.
But then, she said her payments abruptly stopped.
Berris said she would call ODJFS every Monday after filing for benefits on Sunday to ask why she wasn't receiving payments.
"No one seemed to be able tell me what was going on," she said.
A waiting game
Berris said she kept track of the time she spent on the phone waiting for answers from ODJFS.
She estimates she spent at least sixty hours on hold trying to find out why she had stopped receiving benefits.
"They (ODJFS) would do something in their system and say, 'You know, you should be paid.' — and it never happened. This went on for eight weeks," she said.
At the same time, she said she was searching for a job, prepping for interviews, and writing resumes and cover letters.
She said trying to get to the bottom of why she stopped receiving benefits "just added a lot of extra stress to my plate."
Berris said she was eventually told she had missed a deadline to upload her resume to the state's system.
But Berris, who works in the technology sector, said she does not recall receiving any notifications about the requirement.
"The system is poorly designed," she said. "I think it's both a tech problem and a communications problem.
"The system is super antiquated... so you're navigating back and forth but, also, any time you receive a communication, whether it's about why your claim has been denied or why your claim is going for an appeal, it's written in this complex legal jargon that I can't understand, that I'm sure most people can't understand," she said.
A call for OH to 'step up its game'
OH Rep. Darnell Brewer (D-Cleveland) was not surprised to hear Berris's story.
"The state should ... be stepping up its game," he said. "We need to hold them accountable as well as to what they're doing and what they're not doing to help the citizens."
Brewer said his office has received numerous phone calls and e-mail messages from constituents who are struggling to obtain unemployment benefits.
He said constituents complained about problems involving uploading information, updating information, and not receiving information from ODJFS.
He also said constituents complained about long wait times when they call, getting hung up on, and never receiving return phone calls.
It's been six years since a massive surge in unemployment claims during the pandemic exposed Ohio's unemployment system was antiquated, fragile and easily overwhelmed.
He said the state has improved measures to identify fraudulent claims, but should also improve systems to help claimants, like Berris.
"We (Ohio) should have been there to make sure everything she submitted was submitted on time, correctly and in a timely manner, so she can receive those benefits," he said.
ODJFS response
ODJFS does not comment on specific cases.
However, in an email to News 5, a spokesperson said the agency regularly experiences an increase in claims during the winter months, which it started seeing in November 2025.
He said the federal shutdown last fall "delayed the hiring and training of our contract staff into December," which is "partially responsible for some of the delays."
He also said wait times for callbacks from ODJFS are improving.
At the beginning of February, the average wait time for callbacks was about 21.3 hours.
By the end of the month, it was within 5.6 hours.
The endgame
Berris said she recently got a new job, but drained her savings to stay afloat after the state stopped paying her unemployment benefits.
"I was unemployed for about five months and I didn't receive payments for about half of that time," she said.
Even though she's now employed, Berris is still fighting to receive compensation from ODJFS.
She filed an appeal with the Ohio Unemployment Compensation Review Commission, which reconsiders ODJFS cases.
She said she had been on a decision from the commission since January. She said the commission should authorize the release of unemployment funds to her.
"This is money that I was counting on for survival during that time," she said.
