unemployment benefits

[corolla]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas My wife received unemployment benefits a little more than a year ago for a few weeks . It was approved through an appeal she filed with TWC. Now they are saying it was an error and she has to pay it back,and that she cannot draw any benefits again till she does.Can they do this ? I think TWC is out of money and they are trying to rip people off.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

[Zigner]

Originally Posted by corolla

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Texas My wife received unemployment benefits a little more than a year ago for a few weeks . It was approved through an appeal she filed with TWC. Now they are saying it was an error and she has to pay it back,and that she cannot draw any benefits again till she does.Can they do this ? I think TWC is out of money and they are trying to rip people off.What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)?

Q: Can they do this ?

A: Yes.

[GonzoFL]

What your wife is encountering isn't that uncommon...in any state,not just Texas...doesn't matter if the states UC fund is bankrupt or not. She needs to contact TWC and find out exactly what the error is. Since she received benefits through an appeal,who contested the original claim,TWC or her former employer?

[mlane58]

Originally Posted by GonzoFL

What your wife is encountering isn't that uncommon...in any state,not just Texas...doesn't matter if the states UC fund is bankrupt or not. She needs to contact TWC and find out exactly what the error is. Since she received benefits through an appeal,who contested the original claim,TWC or her former employer?

TWC isn't going to contest the orginal claim, only the employer would and that is irrelevant since this happen over a year ago. The OP's wife can cerntainly ask what the error is and I am surprised that the explanation wasn't already given to her in the letter she recieved.

[corolla]

The reason they gave said ,Our invsestigation found you left your last work with intentions of taking another job. You did not actually begin work with any other employer.Your reason for quitting was not good cause connected with the work, unquote. This is crap she did go to work right after leaving that job,and worked for 2 weeks at the other job before leaving it for reasons that were explained in the appeal .Which were exceptable to twc and inturn she was granted benefits. She has a 1099 showing that she went to work at the other job. How do fight TWC ? thanks for your respones ..

[mlane58]

Originally Posted by corolla

The reason they gave said ,Our invsestigation found you left your last work with intentions of taking another job. You did not actually begin work with any other employer.Your reason for quitting was not good cause connected with the work, unquote. This is crap she did go to work right after leaving that job,and worked for 2 weeks at the other job before leaving it for reasons that were explained in the appeal .Which were exceptable to twc and inturn she was granted benefits. She has a 1099 showing that she went to work at the other job. How do fight TWC ? thanks for your respones ..

There should be a statement on the decision telling her how to file an appeal or call the number listed.

[troopdragon]

You are able to file an appeal to any decision that the TWC makes within 14 days of the day the decision was made. I would send an appeal anyway, sometimes they make errors and it may be very easy to contest this decision. Best of luck.

[ecmst12]

Troopdragon - don't necropost. This post is more then 14 days old so even if OP WAS still around, it's too late for your advice to do him any good.

Rollt - don't hijack other people's threads. Start your own thread if you have a question.

[commentator]

She filed for benefits, telling the truth, that she quit her old job because she was taking another job. The other job did not work out, and at THAT point, she filed for unemployment benefits, right? She was approved because of the reason for separation not from the original job, but from the new job. BUT as you said, the new job was not a covered employer. I can't believe the agency(TWC) did not pick that UP! It was a 1099 job, which has NO bearing on your unemployment situation. Whoever did the hearing should have paid NO attention to the reason for your wife leaving the 1099 job. This was agency error, because she should have been denied in the first place.


But then, what has happened now is that your wife's former employer, the one she quit, has had a spasm when they saw that your wife, after voluntarily quitting their job, for whatever reason, has received some unemployment benefits which were charged to their account. The state's overpayment and repayment unit (sometimes called "fraud" unit) has reexamined this situation, and yes, they can and they will ask for this money back.

You can appeal it based on your financial situation, that you cannot at this time due to your financial situation afford to pay the money back (and will be required to produce a detailed statement of income to be granted this)
but not on the situation that she did not quit the job in the first place, since this is not the case. It boils down to you were approved in error, and so they can ask for the money back. Many years later if they don't find out until then.

If you don't pay, if you ignore this, they could go all the way to garnishing wages, but probably what would happen is that it would crop up again any time you tried to do business with the state again, such as get unemployment, register a car, file for a business license, etc.

Your wife did nothing wrong. This was clearly agency error. They never should have been doing an appeal based on her reason for leaving the new job. They should have just denied her last year because she had voluntarily quit her last covered employer.

But then, it was a sort of a loan, nice to have, but even though it was their error, they probably aren't going to say you don't owe the money back. I would, if I was your wife, call and discuss this at length with the people whose number is on the paperwork you've received. Yelling and screaming and cussing and saying this is a load of crap are not going to work as well as reasonable discussion. Accusing the state of Texas of trying to rip people off because their trust fund is broke isn't going to help your case. The individuals who work for the state system don't get more or less money either way. They have no personal interest in bringing the state mo' money. They try to follow the laws, and they sometimes fail. Maybe you can work this out with the fraud unit. Appeal, write your state legislator, object, complain, draw as much attention to this as you can, because as I said, it appears to be agency error. Stress that your wife had no idea this was not an approved claim, that you have letters that told you it was, and that she received benefits based on nothing but the truth.

No matter how old this one is, they're probably still in the appeal process, and can benefit by figuring out what exactly went wrong here and why "Texas" says they owe this money.

[commentator]

She filed for benefits, telling the truth, that she quit her old job because she was taking another job. The other job did not work out, and at THAT point, she filed for unemployment benefits, right? She was approved because of the reason for separation not from the original job, but from the new job. BUT as you said, the new job was not a covered employer. I can't believe the agency(TWC) did not pick that UP! It was a 1099 job, which has NO bearing on your unemployment situation. Whoever did the hearing should have paid NO attention to the reason for your wife leaving the 1099 job. This was agency error, because she should have been denied in the first place.


But then, what has happened now is that your wife's former employer, the one she quit, has had a spasm when they saw that your wife, after voluntarily quitting their job, for whatever reason, has received some unemployment benefits which were charged to their account. The state's overpayment and repayment unit (sometimes called "fraud" unit) has reexamined this situation, and yes, they can and they will ask for this money back.

You can appeal it based on your financial situation, that you cannot at this time due to your financial situation afford to pay the money back (and will be required to produce a detailed statement of income to be granted this)
but not on the situation that she did not quit the job in the first place, since this is not the case. It boils down to you were approved in error, and so they can ask for the money back. Many years later if they don't find out until then.

If you don't pay, if you ignore this, they could go all the way to garnishing wages, but probably what would happen is that it would crop up again any time you tried to do business with the state again, such as get unemployment, register a car, file for a business license, etc.

Your wife did nothing wrong. This was clearly agency error. They never should have been doing an appeal based on her reason for leaving the new job. They should have just denied her last year because she had voluntarily quit her last covered employer.

But then, it was a sort of a loan, nice to have, but even though it was their error, they probably aren't going to say you don't owe the money. I would, if I was your wife, call and discuss this at length with the people on the paperwork you've received. Yelling and screaming and cussing and saying this is a load of crap are not going to work as well as reasonable discussion. Accusing the state of Texas of trying to rip people off because their trust fund is broke isn't going to help your case. The individuals who work for the state system doing get more or less money either way. They have no personal interest in bringing the state mo' money. They try to follow the laws, and they sometimes fail. Maybe you can work this out.

No matter how old this one is, they're probably still in the appeal process, and can benefit by figuring out what exactly went wrong here and why "Texas" says they owe this money.