Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s (R) administration announced on April 14 a plan to waive $1.6 billion in non-fraudulent unemployment insurance overpayment collections. The plan would offer waivers for some workers who claimed benefits during the pandemic but were asked to repay them because the state deemed them ineligible after the payment of benefits.
In total, the administration would write off $475 million in overpaid benefits related to insufficient identity verification. The state argued many of those overpayments involved cases of identity theft where affected claimants never received benefits.
The US Department of Labor (USDOL) also granted a partial blanket waiver for all Federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) overpayments related to insufficient proof-of-work between the weeks ending Jan. 2 and March 20, 2021. The partial blanket waiver will cover about $349 million of overpayments.
