The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
Kevin Williams recently received a letter from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services saying he must pay back thousands of dollars of unemployment payments he received during the pandemic.
He received a Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) overpayment fraud letter on Jan. 16 saying he owes $22,983.
“I was panicked,” the Columbus resident said when he opened the letter. “All of a sudden I have this weird bill that comes from nowhere. And I have to pay this. I don’t have that money.”
The letter, obtained by the Capital Journal, says his PUA application is fraudulent. PUA was made for people who don’t qualify for traditional unemployment benefits and the federal PUA program ended September 2021.
“The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services has determined that you were overpaid benefits to which you are not entitled because you committed fraudulent misrepresentation,” the letter said. “The individual was issued a fact-finding questionnaire through their online PUA account so this agency could verify their identity, but the individual did not complete and return the questionnaire.”