What to do about Over-Payments from Unemployment Benefits

Welcome to Legal Tip Tuesday. My name is Nicholas Kennedy and I handle Employment Law and Social Security Disability Benefits here at QuatriniRafferty. Today I want to talk to you about Over-Payments in Unemployment cases.

This has been a very big issue for my clients. Because so many people have applied for Unemployment because of the pandemic, that the Unemployment system has been overwhelmed. And a lot of my clients are getting unwelcome and unsuspected letters indicating to them that they have to pay back thousands of dollars in Unemployment benefits.

The primary cause for this is that people have been getting paid Unemployment and Unemployment benefits despite the fact that a determination has not been made whether they’re eligible. And so, someone will receive thousands of dollars in Unemployment benefits and then get a letter months later saying that they are ineligible for those benefits and they have to pay them back.

There are other scenarios in which these Over-payments can arise as well, but the key factor that I want to make everyone aware of is that you have 15 days to appeal this over-payment determination of unemployment benefits. That 15 days is a hard and fast rule. So when in doubt, file the appeal and make sure to give me a call so that we can address it. I help my clients through these issues oftentimes and I’ve been able to get very good results and to have these overpayments overturned.

So please, do not panic. When in doubt, file the appeal and contact me so that we can look into how we’re going to address this over-payment and how serious of an issue it is. Because there are different types of over-payments under the law with different consequences, and there are a lot of different ways that I can help assist you through this process.

So, thank you, do not panic, when in doubt file the appeal, and please give me a call here at QuatriniRafferty.