Overpayment on unemployment 15 yrs ago

[todayintx]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TEXAS

Will try to keep this short and to the point.

Applied for our renewal on our business license with the State Dept of Health Services. It was taking longer than normal to receive the license. Call DHS and was told that Texas Workforce Commission was trying to claim the licensing fee, to be put toward an overpayment on on unemployment benefits. I have never filed for, or been on unemployment. The payment made to DHS was from my debit card, with only my name on it.

Directed to TWC. They ran me, and I showed up with nothing. They ran my husband's SS# and decided that he was the reason this was happening. After getting his permission to speak with me, they told me that in 1994, they had determined he had been overpaid $1360.00. He does not remember being notified of this, but then again, it has been 15 years. We have received no documentation of this, and at this time they are refusing to send any.

We have been self-employed for 13 years, almost 14 years.

I have tried looking up statute of limitations, and if this is even legal. All I keep coming up with is the 3 year limitations as pertains to Tax laws in Texas. I did find one court case where it was determined that the 3 year limitation DID also cover any overpayment of benefits.

If anyone can offer any advice, it would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[commentator]

commentator

Oooh, overpayments. Texas is mighty proud of their super tough stance on unemployment overpayments. They reformed up, or toughened up their fraud unit, which is called the Regulatory Integrity Division, in 2007.

I would suggest you call them directly and ask questions. I'm sure they will be glad to give you information regarding how you can deal with this overpayment, as in how you'd go about paying it, though they probably will not send you the original information sent out in 1994.

The overpayment was assessed on your husband's claim in 1994. This would not have been done without some fairly serious effort to contact him, reach him, ask for his feedback in some way. Even if it slipped his mind, it was obviously assessed on the basis of the evidence on hand, and was attached to his social security number in the Texas system. Chances are VERY good that it was a valid overpayment assessment. At any point even far in the future when he tried to do something in the state system, this came up. Can they do this to me? Yes. Has the statute of limitations on this judgement against him expired? I couldn't find anything in Texas unemployment law about this either.

I'm sure Texas will fight very hard to recoup this, having it dismissed will probably take a legal battle if it is possible at all. Recommend that after getting all the information you can come up with from the Texas fraud unit, you may want to consider hiring an attorney if you decide it is worth fighting. Is your argument going to be that he didn't receive the money in error in 1994or that it has been so long ago it should now be forgotten?

 

[todayintx]

At this point, they are refusing to release any documentation on the overpayment, so I do not know if their claims are valid. He and I were not married at that time, in fact, we did not even know each other. He says he did file for unemployment 15 or 16 years ago, but really does not recall ever having been told that he was overpaid. I'm going to guess and say that the claim is valid.

What I'm having a problem with is this: They took a payment on a business license I made, under MY name, and are trying to claim they have the right to do so.

I offered to make payment arrangements with them, and they have refused at this time.