Unemployment owed

[merrickrose]

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

My question involves unemployment benefits for the state of: California

Let me start with this. I was laid off on 8/2008. Applied for UI that
same day. I waited a few weeks before I rec'd a denial letter, due to
overpayment from the prior year.

Now this overpayment was a mistake. Back in 2007, I was unemployed and
receiving benefits. I got a job in 10/2007 and I contacted the
Unemployment office and was told by a rep that I can keep apply for UI
for a month, while I'm working. I did this and then when the month was
over, I discontinued the UI.

Now applying for UI in 8/2008, receiving a denial ltr stating I will not
receive any benefits till the disqualification period due to overpayment
is up. They gave me 2 weeks. I did explain on the phone interview of
what I was told and the rep was rude and well, just wanted the yes and
no answers.

2 weeks later. Nothing. I receive another notice of denial. I'm going
broke here and a single mom of one child. I call and talk to a rep and
was told that the overpayment disqualification would take another 4 wks.


4 weeks later. Nothing. Told by rep, I would have to wait another few
weeks. I start selling my things to survive. No cks. No promises.
Nothing. I was told by the rep that I can file an appeal, but would only
get denied.

Okay, so I moved out to WA state (my bf and family helped me out). This
is 6 months later. I rec'd nothing from UI. Then finally, I get a letter
for a phone interview. I asked the rep on the interview if this 6 month
disqualification period was applied to the overpayment owed. She state,
no. I would still be owing the unemployment office.

I eventually started getting cks. Got a job in April 2009. And let them
know I have a job.

Now what bothers me is, I went through 6 months of hell. Lost a lot of
things that I worked hard for. Had to live off rice and beans. And
borrow funds to take my child to school, gas money and to look for work.
I couldn't even afford taking the bus. And they wanted me to pay them
back.

I am very late with sending an appeal (due to the letter coming one day
before the 20 day send in).

Questions are:

Can I still send an appeal in? (ltr is dated back in early 2009)

Is there any possible way of getting what is owed to me (minus the
overpayment charge, paid to them of course), for the six months I rec'd
nothing from unemployment?

How do I go about getting this resolved?

 

[pattytx]

I can't make any more sense of this posted here than I could when you posted it on the other forum.

However, we do have an expert here in all things unemployment; maybe she can.

 

[commentator]

I got through this fine. And my answer is No. Just like the "judge" you talked to in '09 about this from the unemployment office. You drew unemployment for a month while you were working in October of 08. This was an overpayment. Actually, this was fraud, though they did not call it such, did not prosecute you. But it stayed on your unemployment record. It will. For a looooong time, unless resolved. It must be paid back before you can receive any more unemployment.

It sounds like that in 2009 when you were off work and filed for benefits, you should have begun making your weekly certifications for benefits and it would have taken two or three weeks for a decision to approve or deny benefits. Whether the claim was approved or denied based on this separation would have had nothing to do with the overpayment. If you were determined eligible at this point due to being laid off through no fault of your own, there should have been no appeal. You really shouldn't have been able to appeal the overpayment at this point. There would have been no point in doing so.

But it seems there was, and you had to wait through the decision process for any weekly checks.

This was also the time when unemployment was so far behind that appeals were taking an extraordinarily long time to process due to the unbelievable spike in unemployment in every state.

So how it would have worked is that when you were actually approved to draw benefits based on this separation, the first four or five weeks you certified for would have been used to pay back that overpayment, and from there, you would have begun receiving weekly checks if you were continuing to certify for the weeks.

But it sounds to me like at this point you tried to appeal the overpayment or the delay of your checks and it caused a long period where you were not receiving any checks. You were supposed to be making weekly certifications for benefits during this period. After a decision was made, if your claim was finally approved, you'd have been paid back for all these weeks you had certified. Did you receive this backpay? If not, it would only have been because you hadn't been making the certifications as you should have.

It also sounds as though you were very late in making the appeals, got very far behind on the appeals process, but if you were unemployed through all this situation, you should eventually have received backpay for certs made during the time you were unemployed.

If you didn't, and then six months later you are finally approved for benefits through the appeal process, you still have your claim to draw out if you are still unemployed, but lo and behold, at this point you still have that month of overpayment on your record that must be taken off the top of that new approved claim, about the first two or three or so weeks.

You were appealing to get the new claim approved, it was useless to appeal the old overpayment. It sounds as though you were told this. And the six months you waited did not serve as some sort of "penalty period" that would take the overpayment away. That overpayment is there until you draw benefits to pay it back, or send them money to pay it back.

Since it is not a "needs based" program, unemployment insurance is not an income support program. They are under no obligation to provide you, a single mom who needs a regular income with any kind of timely income support.

It is an insurance program, paid only if you certify for weeks and are eligible for the weeks certified for. They did not ask any questions about your income situation during the time that they were taking your claim, and your income has no bearing on whether you are determined eligible for benefits.

As for the original overpayment, if you talked to someone in '08 who told you could file when you were working for the first month ( I suspect it was because you were being held a month behind in your pay) then they told you whopping wrong, but there is no way you can prove this happened, and they will maintain that you could not help but know that you were certifying for three or four weeks that you were actually working, performing work for which you would eventually be paid, and not able and available and out of work. So the responsibility falls back on you.

At that time that you received the overpayment decision, you could have appealed it but you'd have lost. Your only recourse would have been to request a waiver at that time showing that you lacked the capability to repay the money due to your income, financial situation, family status. At that time.

You cannot now sue the unemployment office for keeping you without income for an extended period of time, because filing for and receiving unemployment insurance is ultimately the responsibility of the claimant. The unemployment system is under NO obligation to make sure you file claims or appeals or make certifications timely, or that you understand the process clearly. They make a general effort to see that everyone does, as required by federal law, but they don't hold your hand and pull you along, call you and remind you to make the certs. And during 2008 and 2009 the unemployment system of most parts of this country was hit by a catastrophic flood of historic proportions, and it's a miracle it continued to function at all.

 

[pattytx]

I knew you could.