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Unemployment Benefits

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Flutterfly83

New member
Hi,
I claimed unemployment benefits (in CA) for a few months while I was working to get caught up on finances I’d fallen behind on while out of work, and because my new job was paying me waaay less than my previous job. I thought that since I’d paid into unemployment for so many years, I’d be ok, or would just have to pay it back. I’m reading a lot of scary stuff about fraud, penalties, and potential jail time. What is the likelyhood that the state will press criminal charges against me? I’m really scared and don’t know what to expect or what I should prepare for.
 


LdiJ

Senior Member
Hi,
I claimed unemployment benefits (in CA) for a few months while I was working to get caught up on finances I’d fallen behind on while out of work, and because my new job was paying me waaay less than my previous job. I thought that since I’d paid into unemployment for so many years, I’d be ok, or would just have to pay it back. I’m reading a lot of scary stuff about fraud, penalties, and potential jail time. What is the likelyhood that the state will press criminal charges against me? I’m really scared and don’t know what to expect or what I should prepare for.
Assuming that you are no longer collecting benefits (if you are still collecting, you need to stop NOW) you need to start saving money now to pay back the benefits, so that as soon as they contact you, you can either immediately pay back the benefits or at least have a decent lump sum to put towards them. The better you cooperate, the less likely you will have to deal with any kind of jail time.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
And YOU have not paid a single penny into the Unemployment system. In 47 states, including yours, unemployment taxes are paid 100% by the employer and not at all by the employee. In the other three percent the cost is split between the two.

You will be better off if you self-identify as having been overpaid than if you want to figure it out. They are less interested in sending you to jail than they are getting their money back. The more cooperative you are, the less likely the state is to take any action other than require repayment.
 

commentator

Senior Member
First of all, I would like to encourage you to go back, search on this site on the subject of unemployment overpayments fraud, etc. A lot of what we say is repeating ourselves over and over and over. People keep making the same mistake over and over, figuring for some really dumb reason that they can work and draw unemployment benefits and no one will notice. The number who try this over a year is in the high thousands in every state. Which is why the sheer volume of dumb and dishonest people would totally fill up our jails and court system if they prosecuted everyone who was dumb and dishonest in this particular way.

Secondly, I'd like to ask you why you suddenly grew a conscience, got worried about this, decided that perhaps it wasn't such a good thing to do? Did you get contacted by the fraud unit yet? it is totally inevitable that this WILL happen, And if it hasn't happened to you personally yet, I'd strongly suggest that you begin by, as was mentioned, if you are still doing it, STOP. And then, I would, from my extensive experience in unemployment fraud, suggest that you contact them, confess (skip all the stupid excuses, they've heard them ALL before. You were fully informed and fully had it explained to you what this was and what would constitute fraud, and you committed it ) and begin working with them to get an overpayment decision and unquestionably to set up a repayment plan with significant fraud penalties.

As it has also been pointed out, they are much more interested in getting their money back than in prosecuting people criminally. First you'd be working with the agency, they try to get you set up to repay the money, and deal with it. If you lawyer up, shut up, fail to cooperate, ignore them, make it in any way more difficult for them to collect this overpayment, you might be the lucky one in every so many who turns out to get recommended for prosecution. your best bet is to plead totally stupid, in that I made a mistake (they can see exactly how much you drew, how much you worked, etc. They get the records from every employer and cross match everything) and that I would like to do everything in my power to set it right. This is NOT, at this point, a criminal matter. It is not the time to admit nothing, lawyer up, or even to sit and wait to get caught. But what you did looks very deliberate, very stupid, very much like the intention to commit fraud. Work on it.
 

LdiJ

Senior Member
First of all, I would like to encourage you to go back, search on this site on the subject of unemployment overpayments fraud, etc. A lot of what we say is repeating ourselves over and over and over. People keep making the same mistake over and over, figuring for some really dumb reason that they can work and draw unemployment benefits and no one will notice. The number who try this over a year is in the high thousands in every state. Which is why the sheer volume of dumb and dishonest people would totally fill up our jails and court system if they prosecuted everyone who was dumb and dishonest in this particular way.

Secondly, I'd like to ask you why you suddenly grew a conscience, got worried about this, decided that perhaps it wasn't such a good thing to do? Did you get contacted by the fraud unit yet? it is totally inevitable that this WILL happen, And if it hasn't happened to you personally yet, I'd strongly suggest that you begin by, as was mentioned, if you are still doing it, STOP. And then, I would, from my extensive experience in unemployment fraud, suggest that you contact them, confess (skip all the stupid excuses, they've heard them ALL before. You were fully informed and fully had it explained to you what this was and what would constitute fraud, and you committed it ) and begin working with them to get an overpayment decision and unquestionably to set up a repayment plan with significant fraud penalties.

As it has also been pointed out, they are much more interested in getting their money back than in prosecuting people criminally. First you'd be working with the agency, they try to get you set up to repay the money, and deal with it. If you lawyer up, shut up, fail to cooperate, ignore them, make it in any way more difficult for them to collect this overpayment, you might be the lucky one in every so many who turns out to get recommended for prosecution. your best bet is to plead totally stupid, in that I made a mistake (they can see exactly how much you drew, how much you worked, etc. They get the records from every employer and cross match everything) and that I would like to do everything in my power to set it right. This is NOT, at this point, a criminal matter. It is not the time to admit nothing, lawyer up, or even to sit and wait to get caught. But what you did looks very deliberate, very stupid, very much like the intention to commit fraud. Work on it.
If you and CGB are confident that it won't cause extra confusion to self report, then I have no problem with it. However I tend to find with government bureaucracies that doing anything outside of the normal system just causes confusion. That is why its been my experience that waiting to hear from them is the safer way to go. However, I will admit that I have never dealt with the unemployment system personally on an overpayment, so if self reporting has no chance of muckying things up, then yes, that is what the OP should do.
 

Eekamouse

Senior Member
Hi,
I claimed unemployment benefits (in CA) for a few months while I was working to get caught up on finances I’d fallen behind on while out of work, and because my new job was paying me waaay less than my previous job. I thought that since I’d paid into unemployment for so many years, I’d be ok, or would just have to pay it back. I’m reading a lot of scary stuff about fraud, penalties, and potential jail time. What is the likelyhood that the state will press criminal charges against me? I’m really scared and don’t know what to expect or what I should prepare for.
All of a sudden you grew a conscience? You're pretty much a thief. Better pay that money back quick-like. smh
 

commentator

Senior Member
Person says, " .....claimed unemployment benefits (in CA) for a few months while I was working to get caught up on finances I’d fallen behind on while out of work, and because my new job was paying me waaay less than my previous job. I thought that since I’d paid into unemployment for so many years, I’d be ok, or would just have to pay it back.

The thing that's scaring me about flutterfly's situation is that he/she just flat out blatantly committed fraud, I suspect by continuing to certify for benefits after returning to work on a new job. What is to her advantage is that a lot of people do it. And as I said, the odds of getting caught eventually are very very very good. I'd want to give myself that advantage of appearing like I've had had an attack of conscience, showing a tad of preemptive remorse that, (being human), the fraud unit workers might sort of latch onto.

Just waiting till they contact her, with all the worry and anxiety generated by the sneaky feeling there's something out there lying in wait for you, and then saying "Whoops, you caught me, so I will now pay it back with penalties and I'm real sorry and hope you guys won't press charges against me....." is a bit less in the department of showing genuine remorse.

And the unemployment rate is low these days, so there are fewer people to pull out and make an example of. Which increases your chances of being the one they select to make an example of. This OP's whole emphasis should be on showing remorse, being easy to work with, very willing to cooperate. This isn't the feds, this isn't the IRS or most government agencies, this is one where fraud is common as dirt and is generally expected. That's why everything is so carefully checked, and why it is pretty tough to get away with it. So IMHO, this person should not have a lot of trouble getting connected with someone who will listen to her story, do the research, make the overpayment decision, and then she can begin a repayment plan.

Incidentally, they wouldn't be any more tickled with you if you walked in and plopped cash on the barrelhead. This isn't really expected, they're used to people who don't have the means to repay them on the spot, because in most cases, they've been unemployed. By all means, swallow that story about figuring you could use it as a little loan, or that you'd be okay because you've been paying it in all these years, which are just downright wrong and everybody knows it. But still, it'd be sad to borrow the money on a credit card or something so you could repay in full right away, giving yourself even more interest and penalties than you've already got.
 
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