‘This is insane,’ jobless worker says of conflicting DETR notices

Las Vegan Thomas Elgas is getting all sorts of conflicting notices in his mailbox.

He waited four months to receive unemployment insurance benefits through Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, a program for jobless independent and self-employed workers.

The same day he finally received the money, Nevada’s employment office notified him he doesn’t qualify for the program.

Two months later, the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation said he must repay it. Then he got a note saying he does qualify.

“This is insane,” said Elgas, who received $14,233 in September.

Many filers are receiving multiple overpayment notices indicating different amounts as well as conflicting eligibility letters — months after filing for unemployment. But because of jammed phone lines, few are able to get clarity.

DETR spokeswoman Rosa Mendez said the agency “worked to balance getting benefits to people quickly against the need to double-check applications and supporting documents to be sure people meet the narrow federal rules for eligibility.”

Juggling act

Notices mailed to filers indicate why the claimant was overpaid and how much they owe the department. Reasons can include failing to report earnings or income as well as errors made by DETR, according to the state of Nevada website.

Latest figures from the U.S. Department of Labor report Nevada made an estimated $30.7 million in improper payments or overpayments last year.

Those who receive overpayment notices are required to pay back their benefits under Nevada law.

Mendez said filers have two options.

“If they agree with the notice or do not wish to contest the overpayment, they can do nothing,” she said. “If they do not agree, they should file an appeal right away.”

Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, said most filers don’t know they are overpaid until it’s too late.

“Your benefits will be stopped first when you are suspected (of being overpaid), and then you get the overpayment notice,” he said.

Mendez said she is unable to provide the number of filers who have received an overpayment notice.

Las Vegan Susan Marsian-Bolduc says she’s at wits’ end with overpayment letters.

“I was literally crying to my mother, who lives in another state and is in her 80s, when I got the letter,” said Marsian-Bolduc, a tour guide who was furloughed in March. In one letter, DETR says she owes more than $14,550.

“It’s an emotional roller-coaster ride: One minute I’m hysterical, thinking they’re going to take all my money and they threaten to garnish our paychecks. I’m not even making enough money to survive right now,” she said.

Tina Culjak, a school bus driver with the Clark County School District, started receiving overpayment notices in October.

“I couldn’t sleep the whole night when I got the notice,” she said.

Culjak said she owes $11,000 in PUA benefits that were paid in her name in July, though she said she has never received a dime.

“I asked them in July to track the funds — they got to have them somewhere, they got to know where they are — but they didn’t come into my bank account,” she said. “I even sent them my bank statements to prove to them that I’ve never seen one check from them, and I’m not paying back $11,000 that I never got.”

Can’t get through

They are all stuck in limbo struggling to get answers from DETR.

“You can’t get through to them on the phone,” Marsian-Bolduc said.

Culjak calls DETR several times a day trying to get someone to review her overpayment appeal.

“It’s like fighting a ghost because you can’t contact anybody and you have to call for hours just to get through the queue, and then the person who picks up is just like a receptionist who says somebody will give you a call back, but nobody actually does.”

Elgas spends hours each week trying to call DETR.

“Most of the times, you get a message that says ‘We’re busy,’ and they hang up on you. In some cases, you can get through and then you wait for three and four hours,” said Elgas, who has a government-subsidized phone service.

“It only gives you like 500 minutes of free time on the phone. So when you’re on hold for several hours, that eats it up – that’s minutes you can’t call your doctor or call your family.”

Elgas used to do handiwork for Sunrise Bible Church. He used his unemployment insurance benefits to find housing and purchase a used car so he could find work.

“Now I’m going to end up having to sell my car,” he worries. “I’ve called the governor’s office, Sen. Rosen’s office, even DETR’s public relations.”

Overwhelmed

Matt Weidinger, Rowe Fellow at American Enterprise Institute, said state agencies are still overwhelmed eight months after the coronavirus fueled a surge in unemployment claims.

“It’s complicated by virtue of the addition of multiple programs, but I would also say the addition of many more people,” Weidinger said. “And in the midst of all that, states are trying to prevent fraud and abuse.”

These additional programs have included the PUA program; the now-expired Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation provision, offering filers an additional $600 weekly benefit; the recently ended Lost Wages Assistance Program, giving filers an extra $300 weekly benefit; and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program, which provides up to 13 extra weeks of benefits for those who have exhausted their claims. All of the federal unemployment programs are set to expire Dec. 26.

It’s no secret that Nevada’s employment office has struggled under the weight of claims.

There have been 1.5 million initial PUA and traditional unemployment insurance claims filed through the week ending Dec. 5, and 1.48 million of those claims have been filed since the week ending March 14.

Contact Jonathan Ng at jng@reviewjournal.com. Follow @ByJonathanNg on Twitter. Contact Subrina Hudson at shudson@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0340. Follow @SubrinaH on Twitter.