MO lawmakers say Labor Department went back on its word to halt collections
Missouri lawmakers working to resolve unemployment overpayment issues
and last updated 2021-04-15 18:59:37-04
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. â Missouri lawmakers claim the Department of Labor went back on its word to halt collections of overpayment money.
41 Action News first reported this issue in
July 2020, when Missourians reported receiving notices of overpayment from the agency. The notices said they had been overpaid due to no fault of their own, through agency error and they needed to pay that money back.
After months of stress and struggling to get any information about the notices, the agency explained about 45,000 Missourians had received them.
Unemployment overpayment bill passes Missouri House
Affected MO residents worry about wage garnishment
Unemployment overpayment bill passes Missouri House
and last updated 2021-03-05 19:16:31-05
KANSAS CITY, Mo. â 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
A
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.