My question involves unemployment benefits for the state of: OHIO
I was a charged with unemployment fraud after collecting unemployment while I worked a commission job. This was in 2004 and I have since paid all the money back. The attorney generals office waived the interest back in 2009 and I was left with 24 penalty weeks. I sent in an appeal back then asking if they could waive the penalty weeks early since everything had been paid back. The 6 year statute of limitations was to be up in December 2010. They denied the appeal and I thought I would just serve out the balance of the 6 years and the penalty weeks would fall off in December.
I called a couple of weeks ago to check on this and was told that because I filed an appeal and it was denied, that starts the clock all over again on my penalty weeks! To get rid of them I have to be unemployed and file a claim to take up the weeks and not be compensated or I have to wait until the new statute of limitations is up in 2015. I didn't get any notification that this had happened. When I asked about the law or statute for this decision, I was told that there was nothing written down. That the appeal people have to the latitude to do that.
I'm not sure what to do at this point. I have a full time seasonal job where I will be furloughed between 2 weeks to 3 months once a year. We are allowed to collect unemployment for that time off. I was lucky for 2010 because our furlough was only 3 weeks, but I can't say for 2011. I don't have alot of money right now but, I'm wondering if I should try to get some type of legal representation or help? I worked hard this past 6 years to get this taken care of so I could put this behind me and get on with my life. Six more years is a long time to go without unemployment just for asking if they could waive my penalty weeks.

