KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missourians who were overpaid unemployment monies during the COVID-19 pandemic are one step closer to keeping the cash.
The Missouri Department of Labor and Industrial Relations paid out $148 million in benefits to people it later found to be ineligible, including $40 million from state coffers and $108 million from federal programs.
The Labor Department says only 3% of it was fraudulent, but many of those Missouri residents have spent months worrying after receiving notices that the state was attempting to claw back the overpayments.
A bill now making its way through the Missouri legislature would waive the federal overpayments. It has passed the Missouri House of Representatives, but those residents worry the state will garnish wages or tax refunds before the bill becomes law.
Olathe resident Steven Berg said he received a noticed saying the agency filed a certificate of assessment through the Cole County Circuit Court, which allows the agency to proceed with garnishment.
Berg isn't alone. A search of Missouri court records shows hundreds of pages of similar certificates of assessment filed against claimants for overpaid unemployment claims.
When asked about garnishment notices, State Rep. J. Eggleston — who represents District 2, located east of St. Joseph, and who sponsored House Bill 1083 — said the agency said it will pause collection efforts related to federal money for now.
Berg said that's news to him, and likely the other claimants receiving the notices.
If the bill also passes the Missouri Senate, it would "waive the repayment of any employment security benefits that were incorrectly but nonfraudulently distributed to claimants ... in which there was no fault on the part of the claimant."
"There's almost a $10,000 difference if the federal portion of it is forgiven, which we hope that it will be," Berg said.
Passage of the law would be only the beginning for claimants, which would have to apply for relief under the waiver and have it approved by the Labor Department.
"That process scares me, because what if I omit an error when I apply for the waiver," Berg said. "Are they going to double charge next time? You know, when does it end."
The House passed the bill 157-3 on Thursday.
"I hear no negativity on the Senate side, so hopefully they will want to take this up as well and hopefully we'll get some relief to the folks very soon," Eggleston said.