SEATTLE, Wash. — Washington state workers are getting hit with demands to repay unemployment benefits.
KIRO reports Blake Whitmore received a bill for more than $14,000 in early November, after missing an online account notice dated Nov. 1, asking for more information by Nov. 6.
Employment Security Department Commissioner Suzi Levine says a group of 26,000 recipients of federal pandemic unemployment assistance received the notices when it was discovered they actually qualified for regular state unemployment benefits.
She says the brief 5-day window to respond to the notices was for a reason: people either respond quickly, or they don’t respond at all.
Levine says affected persons should file an appeal, after which the department will follow up with them with further instructions.