Unemployment Overpayment Question....Will They Send To Collections? (insurance, unemployment benefits)

[njrebel1978]

Has anyone actually had their wages garnished or sent to collections for NOT paying back unemployment overpay? UI overpaid me a few thousand dollars and they send a reminder of what I owe each month with threats of collections and wage garnishment. The fault was on their end and NJ law states that we are only liable to pay back 50% of overpayment if the error was on their end. I even wrote a formal letter to them asking them to re-calculate what I owe them since the errror was on their end (citing the actual law). So far my letter seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Should I be concerned, write them another letter, or just wait it out?

[HudsonCoNJ]

Where did you hear that you're only liable to pay back 50% of an overpayment if it was their error?

[njrebel1978]

https://www.lsnjlaw.org/Jobs-Employm...rpayments.aspx

[HudsonCoNJ]

Originally Posted by njrebel1978

https://www.lsnjlaw.org/Jobs-Employm...rpayments.aspx

Interesting. I didn’t read the whole thing, but the only part that mentions 50% is in bold below and it’s not exactly what you stated:

Overpayments caused by NJDOL’s mistake are treated differently from overpayments that result from a mistake that you or your employer made. You will still have to repay the debt, but there are limits on the collection efforts that NJDOL can take to try to get the money from you. For example, they cannot:

Withhold your tax refunds or rebates
Force you to enter into a formal monthly payment agreement
File a lawsuit against you
Withhold all of your unemployment benefits from you if you apply for unemployment again in the future.
They can, however, keep 50% of your future unemployment benefit until the entire debt is repaid.


Sounds like no matter what, you have to repay it. They will just not try as hard to collect if it’s their fault. And the 50% is what they will take from future unemployment benefits. I don’t see anywhere that says you’re not responsible for paying 50% of the overpayment.

[njrebel1978]

Ahh, Ok. I see your point. I misinterpreted. However, it would still be nice to know if they marked the overpayment as "agency error" after I sent the letter to them. I guess I will start paying them back next month in installments. I rather not risk them sending it to collections or worse.