What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Florida, but the benefits were coming from New York
Hi.. First of all, I just want to say that I know what I did was wrong. I am willing to pay back all that I received with penalties under a payment plan, and my biggest fear is jail-time, losing my new job, and having a felony on my record.
When I was fired from my job, I was a wreck. I had been dealing with sexual harassment and was in a position as a manager for a sort of 'vendor' inside a larger retail store. I had to fire my employee for a severe conflict of interest, and while I kept bringing people up to hire in, my own managers had yet to approve of anyone. This meant that I worked every day for over a month straight and more. I attempted to call around to find someone to give me days off, but no one was willing to help and honestly, I needed the money. As I mentioned, I was dealing with a handicapped (due to having lost one eye, the man was completely sane otherwise) man who was sexually harassing me. He would come in and talk about the most inappropriate things and he wasn't the only one. He wasn't my employee though, so I didn't want to get into it with the host store's management. Long story short, they contacted me once, told me that they felt it was my responsibility as a manager to report things like that. So when I went to them about it continuing, since it was their employee, I ended up getting told to come back at a certain day, ended up in an office with them and my stand-in manager (because we were in the middle of getting new higher ups), questioned about it, and fired the next day for no reason. It was like I was being punished for doing as I was told and I immediately filed for unemployment with Florida and looking for new work. A month went by, and I found out I had to file with New York because I had started working up there for that company and had been transferred to Florida. They tried to deny my benefits, another month went by.. I was falling further behind with gas for going out looking for work, etc... Finally I was accepted and got reimbursed for the money I had been claiming since I filed for New York unemployment, but I was still struggling having gone from almost 2000 every two weeks to only about 810.
It took about three months to find a job, but I did and I love it! But I was still behind, I was playing catch up and like a complete idiot, I kept claiming for about two months. That's about 8 times and as soon as I stopped, I received a letter from the NYS Dept of Labor with an audit. I had planned on calling them back after saving up enough to repay them (and I'm not lying, guilt like that eats at me, my record is spotless) even before the letter. It said on it that if I was working now, just to return it at my earliest convenience so I didn't think it was a huge deal.. I was newly engaged shortly after becoming unemployed so a lot of our money has already gone to a very small and inexpensive wedding (which has been funded by extra money since after I stopped claiming, not the NYS UI Benefits). Meaning I don't have anything saved.. I've thought about looking for some kind of $5000 loan to offer to pay them back immediately, but I'm not sure I can find that having only a fair amount of credit.
So I ignored it and started planning a budget to save for that, but a week later, I missed a certified letter delivery from NYS Dept of Labor, and here we are today. I haven't been arrested, haven't spoken to anyone, but I'm scared. I know I was so stupid and I don't know what I was thinking and I want to make this right and put it behind me but I'm terrified of jail and how can I pay them back if I lose my job due to being put there?
Hi.. First of all, I just want to say that I know what I did was wrong. I am willing to pay back all that I received with penalties under a payment plan, and my biggest fear is jail-time, losing my new job, and having a felony on my record.
When I was fired from my job, I was a wreck. I had been dealing with sexual harassment and was in a position as a manager for a sort of 'vendor' inside a larger retail store. I had to fire my employee for a severe conflict of interest, and while I kept bringing people up to hire in, my own managers had yet to approve of anyone. This meant that I worked every day for over a month straight and more. I attempted to call around to find someone to give me days off, but no one was willing to help and honestly, I needed the money. As I mentioned, I was dealing with a handicapped (due to having lost one eye, the man was completely sane otherwise) man who was sexually harassing me. He would come in and talk about the most inappropriate things and he wasn't the only one. He wasn't my employee though, so I didn't want to get into it with the host store's management. Long story short, they contacted me once, told me that they felt it was my responsibility as a manager to report things like that. So when I went to them about it continuing, since it was their employee, I ended up getting told to come back at a certain day, ended up in an office with them and my stand-in manager (because we were in the middle of getting new higher ups), questioned about it, and fired the next day for no reason. It was like I was being punished for doing as I was told and I immediately filed for unemployment with Florida and looking for new work. A month went by, and I found out I had to file with New York because I had started working up there for that company and had been transferred to Florida. They tried to deny my benefits, another month went by.. I was falling further behind with gas for going out looking for work, etc... Finally I was accepted and got reimbursed for the money I had been claiming since I filed for New York unemployment, but I was still struggling having gone from almost 2000 every two weeks to only about 810.
It took about three months to find a job, but I did and I love it! But I was still behind, I was playing catch up and like a complete idiot, I kept claiming for about two months. That's about 8 times and as soon as I stopped, I received a letter from the NYS Dept of Labor with an audit. I had planned on calling them back after saving up enough to repay them (and I'm not lying, guilt like that eats at me, my record is spotless) even before the letter. It said on it that if I was working now, just to return it at my earliest convenience so I didn't think it was a huge deal.. I was newly engaged shortly after becoming unemployed so a lot of our money has already gone to a very small and inexpensive wedding (which has been funded by extra money since after I stopped claiming, not the NYS UI Benefits). Meaning I don't have anything saved.. I've thought about looking for some kind of $5000 loan to offer to pay them back immediately, but I'm not sure I can find that having only a fair amount of credit.
So I ignored it and started planning a budget to save for that, but a week later, I missed a certified letter delivery from NYS Dept of Labor, and here we are today. I haven't been arrested, haven't spoken to anyone, but I'm scared. I know I was so stupid and I don't know what I was thinking and I want to make this right and put it behind me but I'm terrified of jail and how can I pay them back if I lose my job due to being put there?