question regarding whether Overpayment notice will be sent

[tomindavis]

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

I know not all of you are lawyers, but I will ask this anyway, with the hope someone can give me some insights on a particular EDD process.

I was denied my UI claim last March. I appealed. I found a new job in June (13 weeks of UI benefits at stake). The appeal was held in August, and I found out in early October that I won the appeal. I was aware that my former employer had the right to appeal to the CUIAB (appeals board in CA), and counted away the 20 days I think he had to file. About a month later I received a bunch of checks totaling $3400, without any explanation. But, as the 20 days' appeal time had passed, and b/c they sent me $$, I assumed I had won, period. I paid off about 2 grand to a former attorney on an older matter, and paid off several hundred in credit debt within a week.
Two weeks after I received the checks I received a cc'd file from the CUIAB saying that my former employer had indeed filed an appeal. The file was stamped prior to my receiving the checks, but I didn't receive this notice of appeal until well after that time. In early December I found out that my former employer had won his appeal. It should be noted that I did not attempt to collect any UI $$ following notice of the CUIAB appeal.

I have been opening my mailbox nervously ever since, but I have also read that when one is overpaid PRIOR to a later lost appeal, and there is no evidence that the claimant was in the wrong, or fraudulent, the EDD very likely will not act on anything.
But, since I returned to CA in February, I have been without work, I am in school, and i have been managing to get by on student loan/grants. Now, without being able to find part-time work despite considerable effort, I filed a UI claim b/c I will go broke before I graduate in June if no $$ comes in.
What I would like to know is if anybody knows whether the EDD likely already knew about the overpayment but did not act on it? And, if they did not know, is it likely they will be automatically alerted to the overpayment by my new claim, in a new calendar claim year? I have allowed two months to go by without filing a new claim, but just couldn't hold off. My guess is that they didn't know simply b/c they have a major administrative backlog and are overworked.

anybody have any inside insights? thanks!!

 

[swalsh411]

On what grounds did your former employer win the appeal and were you given a chance to participate?

 

[commentator]

Uh, yes! As to the answer to your question about unemployment triggering the department to noticing your overpayment.

When you won the hearing, you received the backpay for the weeks prior that you had been certifying. If you hadn't gotten another job, you would have been eligible to continue to certify, and if you had been doing that, continuing your unemployment claim and extensions, you'd have automatically been stopped as soon as the decision was overturned by the board of review, so you'd have noticed sooner. Anyhow, you received a notice that the claim had been overturned, and that you were now overpaid in the amount of $XXXX. You were right, they probably wouldn't have come after you vigorously about this overpayment.

It sounds a bit questionable if you are likely to be approved for benefits on the claim you have just filed in this benefit year. Because you had to have wages in the base period right now to be monetarily eligible, and if this is met, then they go back to the last place you worked, and how long you worked there, and your reason for leaving, which sounds like perhaps a quit, an whether you worked there long enough to count as your separating employer, if not, it would bounce back to the old decision where you were denied by the CUIAB. You are in school (we assume full time) You have only been looking for part time work anyhow. People do not qualify for unemployment simply because they are very broke and need it. You have to be separated from a covered employer for a non-disqualifying reason, have enough wages in the current base period to qualify, and be able and available and actively seeking full time (in most cases) work.

But when you filed this claim, whether it is approved or not, there popped up this overpayment on your social security number. This thing will stay on your record for years. If you even get approved to receive unemployment benefits again, what will happen is that they will take the first $XXXX (how much you were overpaid.) You'll file for weekly benefits, and after seven or eight weeks, you'll actually have those weeks paid off, and then you'll start receiving money yourself.

But you're right in that they probably won't try to collect it aggressively, since there was no fraud involved. But any time you try to sign up on unemployment, obtain a state licensure, or any number of other state related things, it'll show up unless it is paid off at some point.