Unemployment ‘nightmare’ gets relief
Youngkin signs bills to help workers who mistakenly received benefits
Gov. Glenn Youngkin signed several bills intended to help those who were inaccurately approved for unemployment benefits.
One of the bills requires the Virginia Employment Commission to notify those who received nonfraudulent overpayments that they have 30 days to request a waiver. It directs the commission to issue a waiver if the applicant was not at fault and said demanding repayment would be contrary to “equity and good conscience” — meaning it would deprive the individual of the money needed for basic necessities, such as food, shelter, medicine and childcare.
“You don’t want a person to have decide between paying for food and paying back benefits,” said Flannery O’Rourke, an attorney with the Virginia Poverty Law Center. “Nobody should be put in that position.”
Nonfraudulent overpayments occur when an applicant is erroneously approved for unemployment, despite submitting a truthful application. The error may come to light months or years after the individual received payments, and often leaves recipients struggling to pay back the funds. The issue has come under the spotlight in Virginia as more applicants were mistakenly approved for benefits during the height of the pandemic.
“This is huge,” said O’Rourke, who specializes in unemployment law. “The only thing worse than not getting benefits is getting approved for benefits to which you were not actually entitled.”
The VEC estimates roughly $3.6 million in waivers will be granted each year, according to the bill’s fiscal impact statement.
The bill was carried by Sen. Lamont Bagby, D-Richmond, and Del. Kathy Tran, D-Springfield.
Another measure from Sen. Adam Ebbin, D-Alexandria, and Del. Lee Ware, R-Powhatan, sets a five-year statute of limitations for
recouping nonfraudulent overpayments. It also would allow the commission to waive overpayments in any situation where the agency determined it would be “administratively impracticable” to recover the money. The commission previously could only write off overpayments after seven years with good cause, or if the individual has filed for bankruptcy or died.
About $220 million in nonfraudulent collectible overpayments are outstanding, according to the bill’s fiscal impact statement.
A third bill from Ware is intended to improve the unemployment application process by strengthening the consequences for employers who fail to provide timely responses to requests from the commission. The bill requires the commission to provide written notice for each instance of untimely or inadequate employer response to such requests. Currently, employers can be hit with a $75 penalty after the third such occurrence. This legislation will increase the fine to $100 and allow it to be issued after the second incident.
The legislation will go into effect in July. All of the bills received strong bipartisan support. O’Rourke said it was heartening to see both sides of the aisle come together.
“We are trying to take away the nightmare,” she said. “You don’t want people who lose their job to be afraid to apply for unemployment.”