BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — How would you feel if the government asked you to pay back unemployment assistance you received during the pandemic?
One Boise man feels pretty confused after the state demanded he return thousands of dollars worth of payments.
We all know that Idaho struggled at the beginning of the pandemic with the amount of unemployment requests and claims filed. Now, Idaho and other states are also having to deal with overpayments that happened throughout the process.
It's a tough situation — those overpayments may have been the result of just a simple error, or they could've been fraud.
"I filled out the web page just as it said. Didn't lie on anything. And now they're saying that I wasn't eligible in any way whatsoever, and I owe them over $12,000 that they paid out," said Boise resident William Thames.
Thames isn't alone in this dilemma, and now as a new father, he says he's swamped with collection notices, and the state of Idaho has filed a tax lein against him.
"At that point, I didn't know what to do," Thames said. "Like, I shouldn't have to set up a payment plan or pay back any of that kind of money. Especially because it was from the federal government to assist the families and the people that were out of work from the pandemic."
At the start of the pandemic, Idaho and other states worried about overpayment of the pandemic unemployment assistance money, as they were overwhelmed with Covid-related job loss. Just last summer, the government accountability office reported the labor department found almost $13 billion in overpayments made from April 2020 through March 2021, including some benefits that were a result of fraud.
Thames said he originally contacted the Idaho Labor Department, but he has not followed through.
The state does have the ability to grant a waiver. A person has to request a hearing.
The labor department released a statement about all of this. They cannot speak about an individual case, but they said there have been overpayment notices sent out here in Idaho. If you've got one, the best thing to do is contact the department of labor.
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