State notifying recipients of possible waivers for jobless overpayments

A Missouri agency has started a process for claimants to apply for potential waivers of the recovery of federal unemployment overpayments.

The Department of Labor and Industrial Relations is mailing notices to eligible unemployment claimants they may qualify for the waivers. (The department began mailings Friday.) The notices may also be found in the “Correspondence” tab of UInteract, the state’s online unemployment benefits service.

Claimants who receive the notice have 30 days from the date of the notice to apply, and are strongly encouraged to apply online through UInteract, according to a Department of Labor news release.

Federal guidelines require each application be reviewed on a case-bycase basis.

Missouri’s Division of Employment Security (DES) anticipates a large number of requests and will work as quickly as possible to review each application and issue a determination, according to the release.

Upon receipt of an application for waiver of recovery, all recovery activities will remain suspended for all eligible overpayments until processing is complete and all rights to appeal have been exhausted.

The waiver provision applies to overpaid benefits for weeks ending Feb. 8, 2020, through June 12, 2021, under these federal pandemic programs:

• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation.

• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.

• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation.

• Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation.

• Lost Wages Assistance.

The waiver of recovery only applies to non-fraud federal benefit overpayments paid under the CARES Act. Regular state unemployment insurance overpayments, Extended Benefits overpayments and overpayments that resulted from claimant fraud are not eligible for waiver. DES will resume collection activities in August for any overpayment not eligible for waiver of recovery.

Additionally, the Division of Employment Security is warning unemployment insurance claimants about scams aiming to steal personal information. Individuals are encouraged to be aware of the potential for fraud and only use the official website, uinteract.labor.mo.gov/ benefits/home.do

More information is available at www.labor.mo.gov/ coronavirus.