Picture this scenario: A friend offers you a slice of scrumptious, calorie-laden, chocolate cake – no charge! You devour the cake, delighting in its sweet decadence.
A few hours later, long after you’ve discarded your plate, the friend demands you pay for the dessert you’d thought was free. He says he erred in calculating his costs, you see, and shouldn’t have been so altruistic.
Something like that is playing out right now courtesy of the much-criticized Virginia Employment Commission. Unfortunately for laid-off workers during the pandemic, the VEC now wants money back for its errors in calculating payments.
“We are legally bound by federal directive to establish overpayments where benefits were paid improperly,” Joyce Fogg, a commission spokeswoman, told me by email. “ We are allowing individuals to apply for waivers if they are overpaid through no fault of their own.”
That’s understandable. How the VEC goes after the money, though, could use a lighter touch. A July 1 news release noted the Attorney General’s Office and an outside collection agency could be coming after Virginians.
A state law that expired June 30 had allowed the commission to suspend collection of overpayments. Virginia, by the way, is just one of 12 states that doesn’t have a permanent overpayment waiver provision, according to the nonprofit National Employment Law Project.
But most folks in this category spent that money long ago. While out of a job and seeking a new one, they needed the cash for...
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