Can unemployment benefits be accidentally overpaid?

Appealing Unemployment Overpayment?

• I have been contacted by the Unemployment Office here saying that I was overpaid due to me having a job yet still claiming benefits. I was hired for company "A" stopped. Attended the training day 1 and halfway through I was verbally told that I wasn’t qualified for the position and that unfortunately they no longer needed me. According to the company, i voluntarily quit and now the unemployment office is asking for 2K + back. I opened an appeal online and they sent me a packet of information for a "Phone appeal" and all the documents in it. They all state the company said i quit on my own. I don’t know the name of the employee that fired me because it was day 1 so I didn’t know anybody. What do I do? I was verbally let go so I can’t show any documents saying that I was fired.

• Answer:

  A FEW THOUGHTS One of the things you should state is that you wanted the job and you still do. You are willing to start immediately if the company offers you that job. You should also state very clearly that the person told you that weren’t qualified for the job and that this was the reason for dismissing you during training. This isn’t really a firing. Firing somebody means that they did something unacceptable, generally something bad or incompetent , and that the company must terminate the person’s employment due to this poor conduct. In your case it seems that the company misjudged your qualifications and that they shouldn’t have hired you in the first place. They made the error in offering you a position for which you were not qualified, as became evident during attempted training, and when they discovered their error they dismissed you. The fact that it happened within half a day indicates that you never developed a track record with that company and so they couldn’t have possibly determined that as a worker your conduct was poor. Quite frankly I think that there is something absurd about even considering you an ‘employee who was fired’ when you have only been there for half a day and somebody determines that you are not qualified for the position. The whole thing is absurd and you should speak to your State’s Labor Board and get more advice.