Missouri demand 46,000 repay unemployment overpayments spurs bipartisan angst
(The Center Square) — Missouri overpaid about 46,000 people more than $150 million in unemployment benefits in 2020 and the state’s Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), supported by Gov. Mike Parson, wants the money back.
Rep. Doug Clemens, D-St. Ann, has filed House Bill 1035, which would require the DLIR “to waive non-fraudulent overpayments of federally supported unemployment benefits.”
Rep. Peter Merideth, D-St. Louis, has sponsored a resolution, HCR 30, that says Missourians who didn’t commit fraud should not have to repay money, because the state made the error.
Although neither has been assigned to committees for hearings, if a discussion before the Missouri House Special Committee on Government Oversight this week is an indication, there is bipartisan support in the Republican-controlled Legislature to hold those who inadvertently received overpayments from the state harmless.
During a three-hour exchange before the panel Tuesday, LLIR Director Anna Hui said Missouri paid out $236 million in unemployment benefits in 2019.
That number increased more than 20 times to $5.1 billion in 2020 because of the pandemic, including about $150 million in over-payments to about 46,000 Missourians, she said.
Hui said reimbursement for unemployment payments is standard procedure and that the LDIR will work with those who received overpayments on repayment plans.
She said repayment plans “can cover a number of different things whether it’s offset against future benefits, offset against tax returns, refunds or again, we establish a payment plan.
During the hearing, Hui was peppered with personal accounts with Rep. Richard Brown, D-Kansas City, noting a woman he knows has received a letter from LDIR asking her to repay $23,000.
Rep. John Eggleston, R-Maysville, read a letter from a Missouri teacher who the LDIR is demanding $9,000 in repayments “because of the state’s error,” adding the teacher told him she wishes had been denied unemployment right from the start.
“I think we need to figure out a way to let these people keep this money because ultimately they’re never going to trust us again if we don’t,” said Rep. Tony Lovasco, R-O’Fallon.
Entering into the 2021 legislative session, which began Jan. 6 and ends in May, Republican leaders in the statehouse realized the DLIR’s repayment policy could inadvertently further hurt Missourians who are already suffering because of the pandemic.
“It’s an issue and we need to work through it,” said Senate Majority Leader Caleb Rowden, R-Columbia, telling the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in January that he doubts the state will recover the vast majority of the money
“If it’s what we think it looks like,” he said, “the state’s probably going to have to eat it.”
Of course, much of the unemployment assistance money is derived from two federal relief packages that have been adopted since March. Both include provisions that allows states to waive repayments of the assistance unless fraud is detected.
On Thursday, however, Parson backed the DLIR and said the money should be paid back, lending his support to Hui’s repayment plan proposal.
“I don’t think if there’s a mistake made on both sides there ought to be some mutual understanding of how we make up that difference,” Parson said. “So if that means somebody paying something off over a five-year period of time or whatever the time slots are, if they know they’ve got it and can then they should.”
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