LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A wave of overpayment notices sent by DETR have left some unemployment claimants scratching their heads.
A number of people have reached out to KTNV stating they received random notices last month. Many people are eager to get in touch with DETR.
The letters state the claimants owe the department money, some letters are for $100 while other letters are demanding thousands of dollars.
Claimant Courtney Dolan says she doesn’t think her notice is correct.
“You get told by DETR in writing and over the phone what your benefits are,” Dolan said. “But then I get this letter telling me I owe $9,000 and some change, and I never reported my income when I did.”
We also spoke with Amber Hansen who runs a popular Pandemic Unemployment Assistance Facebook group. She says she got a wave of messages about the notices in June.
“All of a sudden I have a mass wave of individuals getting letters saying they are no longer qualified, their information is removed from the portal, their income is wiped to zero,” Hansen said.
KTNV reached out to DETR about the notices and the department responded with the following information:
Claimants who receive an overpayment notice can:
- Set up a payment plan for the overpayment by calling 775-684-0475.
- Request a hardship waiver of the overpayment from the Benefit Payment Control unit. For questions on overpayments and waivers, claimants can call 775-684-0475. If the waiver request is denied, the claimant can appeal the denial.
- The claimant can appeal the over payment determination to the Appeals Unit. If the claimant appeals the overpayment and the appeals referee affirms the overpayment and does not see it is against equity and good cause or hardship to pay it back, BPC is not permitted to review it again as it has received an independent review from appeals already. In that case, the waiver would be denied per the appeals decision, and the claimant could appeal the referee's decision to the Board of Review.
What if a person got an over payment notice but never filed for benefits?
Please check out DETR’s fraud resources page. There are forms available to report fraudulent claims to DETR and to request a corrected 1099-G should you need one:
https://detr.nv.gov/Page/UnemploymentFraud
For PUA, waivers and appeals are entered by the claimant directly from their account online.
For UI, an online hardship waiver form can be found at ui.nv.gov, on the claimant tab.
KTNV replied to DETR’s message asking if there was a reason all the notices went out around the same time and if there was any fraud suspected, we have yet to hear back on those questions.
