EDD demands overpayment

[folly]

I don't know how to start a new thread but I have a similar issue as this thread. Hopefully someone might have some advise. California EDD sent a letter saying they overpaid me from over a year ago. It said to respond by a certain date, which allowed me 4 days to try to figure out what to do. Since I work full time I just could not find enough time to figure it all out. I was able to pull payroll records (as I work back at the same place that I was laid off from) and I could see that I did not work any hours during the week in question, but the following week I had worked a few hours. I don't know what I claimed on any of those weeks as I do not have access to the claim forms that EDD has. I received no documentation from EDD telling me details other than a weekly date. I am so intimidated by the letter and the way it is written, it comes across as such a threat. I ran out of time and gave up the attempt to figure it out. I wrote a check for the amount in question and mailed it on the day before the demand date. I just took it to the post office. I guess I should have gotten a return receipt. They cashed the check 15 days later. Where that check has been, who knows, cause that seems like a long time for them to sit on it. Today I received another letter saying now they want a 30% penalty and I can not make a claim for 3 months. I am dumbfounded. I read on EDD web site penalties are only applied when you commit fraud. I don't think there was a error to start with but if there was it was not done intentionally, it was a mistake. I was in a period where my employer was beginning to add people back on but hours were unpredictable. The EDD claim form is terribly confusing for listing hours and date. I had to estimate how many hours or partial hours I worked on each day because I had not been paid yet. There was no documentation like a paystub to match it back to because they are not issued for two weeks after you work. I usually under estimate just so there would be no problem. EDD never tells you when you error the other way! They match records from employer with your claims but I wonder if they ever send you money when you under report earnings. I don't believe I will get laid off in the next 3 months but you never know.
My questions are is a way to ask for this penalty of 30% and the 3 month thing to be waived? Is it to late? No one answers the phones at EDD. You get recordings, press this number, another recording and never a human. Will this be a flag on me now, like I have committed fraud? Possibly making me ineligible for other state programs, school grants, etc? The amount I paid back was $90, not big money but when you make min wage to start with $90 make a difference in whether you will eat much this month. Going to a hearing is out of the question, I would have to take off work, drive for 2 hours, just not something I could do.

 

[davew128]

I'm calling BS. Not stating you did anything improper, but if you were so intimidated you could have gotten off your duff and called EDD and straightened it out. EVEN IF you're working a job. Simply rolling over says you did wrong even if you didn't.

 

[commentator]

When the agency contacts you in this manner, it means that their system has detected a discrepancy between the payroll records of your employer and the earnings you reported on your weekly request for certification that you submitted. These reports are submitted by all the covered employers, and the system cross matches them with unemployment drawn.

When this happens, you receive a contact such as you did. It requests that you get back with some specific person at some specific number within three or four days. That you vacillated and acted really stupid like you had to work the whole thing out and get it arranged and get an argument set up and since you work full time and you were SOOOO intimidated by the awful awful letter, which probably said that if you don't respond to them, you may be charged with fraud up to and including yada yada. Guess what, you were supposed to get back with them. The person who you were supposed to get back to at this time is called an INVESTIGATOR, not a prosecutor, not a police officer, not a punisher.

If you contact them as instructed, they will already have everything in hand. They will have the payroll records that show exactly how much you were paid by the week, from your employer's records. They will have your forms that you filled out showing exactly what you claimed as earnings and which weeks you claimed them for. You do NOT need to try to come up with this junk yourself. Sometimes, when you work it through with them, there will turn out to be an error in the employer's tax reporting. Sometimes, there will turn out to be a difference in the amount you reported which week, though you reported it all, you may have reported in the wrong week. Or you may have plain old reported zero when you were actually paid xxx. Whatever. They don't care. They can see what happened. They are not looking for excuses, apologies or brilliant legal arguments or requests for clemency. Is there an error somewhere, or did you get paid as our records show? If you don't get involved, they will make a decision without you.

If you contact them at once, and are ready willing and able to straighten this issue out if there is a problem, and ready to work with them to get the money paid back if there is an overpayment, and it was miscalculating, estimating your pay, or just a math error or two, they probably will not determine it to be a fraud overpayment. If you had just flat dog gone back to work and continued to claim the money when you obviously were not eligible, they may decide it was fraud and assess the appropriate penalties.

Any story you come up with about why you did it, or you swear you didn't do it, don't admit to anything, get an attorney to say you refuse to admit you did anything, they don't care. They can see what you did. They can access your state and federal tax forms. They can go into your employer's files. They can investigate to the extend they can interview your co workers. You did what you did, the time to make up excuses or try to hide it is past. They don't give a hoot whether you admit you did it or not. They don't care whether you were very poor and needed the money so bad or that you were on medication and not in your right mind. They can see you did it. They don't care why.

There was no need for you to pull records, make up a story, hire legal counsel, talk to somebody about it, or any of those things you did instead of calling them back. And the deal about sending them xxx amount of money, which was the amount that it appeared, according to their communication, that you may have possibly been overpaid, was a very bad idea. Its sort of like somebody accused of shoplifting who offers to pay for the merchandise after they've been caught.

Actually they are very much more interested in getting their money back than in prosecuting you. However, failing to contact them as you did, even though you sent in some money at random, is about the surest way to make them determine your overpayment was fraud. And if they want to, and they decide to, they can hand your case over to a prosecutor and let you be prosecuted for unemployment fraud in the court system. Right now you are dealing with an agency. If you get a fraud overpayment and pay it back, it will never show up anywhere else or cause you future problems. Get prosecuted, and you've got a lifelong problem.

If you immediately stop waffling and making silly excuses and talk to them that will be the very best thing for you to do. (and YES, you can get through. If you have been contacted by the fraud and overpayment unit, you have a different number from the general number that you call in at random on and push all the buttons. You use that number, you don't just call the system at random and then say, "Oh well, I couldn't respond, I couldn't get through!" That's the behavior that tends to get you prosecuted.

If you fail to respond to this contact, which is telling you you have a fraud overpayment (they made this decision without your input, you know, by your choice) and do not either ask them for a waiver or work out a repayment program, then yes, not only could this affect your tax refunds, your applications for state licensures, student loans, get your wages garnished, but it could also result in your prosecution by the courts for unemployment fraud and have very serious consequences. You can keep that from happening by getting back with them quickly, and working with them as willingly and cooperatively as possible.


My questions are is a way to ask for this penalty of 30% and the 3 month thing to be waived? Is it to late? No one answers the phones at EDD. You get recordings, press this number, another recording and never a human. Will this be a flag on me now, like I have committed fraud? Possibly making me ineligible for other state programs, school grants, etc? The amount I paid back was $90, not big money but when you make min wage to start with $90 make a difference in whether you will eat much this month. Going to a hearing is out of the question, I would have to take off work, drive for 2 hours, just not something I could do.


What if you had to take off and go to jail? I think it would well be worth your time to get this matter straightened out. You don't seem to understand what you're dealing with, and unlike 99% of the people who come on here, you didn't get worried enough about it. Yes, there is such a thing as a waiver, though they usually do not give them for fraud overpayments. They will work with you on a repayment plan which will keep you from losing out if you deal with them. How do you think you're going to get it done if you don't get back with them?