Hi everyone, this is Dr. Nitin Chhoda and welcome to this episode of Ignition Time.
Thank you so much for being a viewer. Thank you so much for being a subscriber. I want you to
know that you're greatly appreciated. My goal with the Ignition Time channel
is to tell you the truth so you understand what's happening not to give you any faults hope, not to
string you along. I want to give you the truth because I know you can handle the truth. In fact
the basis of the Ignition Time channel, the ideology of our channel is to give you
information about the country, information about the economy and information about your money. The
way the country stands today is the pandemic has impacted several industries specifically travel,
leisure, entertainment and hospitality. There's been a significant impact for millions of us. In
fact out of the 20 million individuals who earn unemployment there are estimates that 12 million
of those individuals are on the pandemic unemployment assistance program which is a
program for self-employed workers, gig workers and part-time workers. This program was specifically
set up as a direct result of the Cares Act. This program did not exist before. These individuals
were not eligible for unemployment benefits prior to the Cares Act that was passed earlier this
year. Now here's the dangerous truth behind this program because all state systems are overwhelmed,
in some cases they are paying individuals who are not eligible for those benefits and in those cases
they are actually demanding that money back even if those funds have already been spent. The PUA
program which was essentially modeled off of the DUA program, the disaster unemployment assistance
program is essentially a more a looser version of the DUA program because it did not require as
much documentation as much ongoing documentation in order to be able to continue to be eligible
for benefits as a DUA program. So essentially it was modeled off another program which had ongoing
documentation requirements for you to receive ongoing benefits but because of the pandemic,
the PUA program was set up in such a way that it would be easy to execute, that it would be easy
to collect and it would be simple to pay out. As a direct result there's been a lot of fraud.
In California it is estimated that $1 billion of fraud occurred and a lot of that had to do with
prisoners. Yes, inmates in California prisons actually getting, actually getting debit cards
from the State of California and actually collecting unemployment benefits. Just blows your
mind when you think about that. Here's an article on your screen from the New York times and the
headline of the article reads, jobless benefits saved them until states wanted the money back.
Yes, jobless benefits saved them until states wanted the money back. A pandemic relief program
allows no forgiveness absolutely no forgiveness of overpayments even when recipients are not at fault
and the funds are already spent. And this program by the way is the pandemic unemployment assistance
program or the PUA program. Now again this is a federal program that covers gig workers part-time
workers self-employed workers seasonal workers and this program was established in march by congress
as part of the cares act and has provided over 70 billion dollars in relief and there's already been
a significant amount of fraud which is why states are starting to crack down on the pua program
because at the end of the day they have to account for all these funds that came from the federal
government in fact on your screen right now you'll see articles and you'll see reports from
around the country this isn't just in one or two places in the country this was actually originally
reported in ohio but this is happening around the country where individuals who receive pua benefits
have been asked to pay back the benefits now keep in mind the pua program was a very quickly put
together program it was put together quickly and as when you do something quickly by definition
it tends to be less efficient states have now overpaid hundreds of thousands of workers again
you'll continue to see all of these articles on your screen that show you what's going on
and states across the country having paid overpaid hundreds of thousands of workers
often because of errors administrative errors on the part of the unemployment benefit agency
even though that money is already spent states are now asking for their money back these notices come
out of the blue and there are instructions to pay back sometimes hundreds sometimes thousands
sometimes tens of thousands of dollars and now keep in mind this money is going to individuals
who have already paid out that money because they have to pay bills they have to buy food they have
to make rent they have to keep the lights on these individuals are already living on the edge
and now have been told that they have to pay back the money or or the state may put a lien on their
home the state may come after future wages or the state may actually withhold tax refunds so this
is what the states are doing in order to be able to get the money back from individuals who have
been paid as a result of an administrative error on behalf of the state many who collect payments
are still out of a job because i've talked about long-term unemployment rising many have little
or no prospect of getting a job and a lot of individuals who actually get these letters are
actually you know shocked because they didn't even know that they were overpaid to begin with here's
a comment on your screen from michelle evermore who's a senior policy analyst for the national
employment law project a non-profit workers rights group she said when somebody gets a bill like this
it completely terrifies them and sometimes the letters themselves are sent in error you
know they talk about overpayments when in fact the payments are accurate but this is a lot of stress
this is a lot of stress for individuals and this program again the pua program has been besieged
by widespread fraud and states you know have limited resources so states have now realized
their mistakes and are now starting to send out these notices of overpayment and in the meantime
again people have been collecting and spending the money uh money that they thought they were
legitimately receiving until they get that letter in the mail from the state office now here's a
shocking number as of the 30th of september about 27 yes about 27 percent of those approved for the
pua program in ohio had been overpaid think about that one in four individuals in the state of ohio
who got the pua program benefits were overpaid that's about 162 000 claims in mid-november
that figure in the state of colorado was 29 000 claims and in texas it was over 41 000 claims
now here's the problem when it comes to regular state unemployment benefits there's the rules
are different when it comes to the pua program the rules are much more stringent when it comes
to overpayment many states actually wave over payments they waive overpayments on regular state
unemployment benefits a when no fraud is involved or b when paying the money back would cause
significant hardship for the recipient however the federal rules for the pua program are much
much much more strict they prohibit forgiveness you cannot forgive an overpayment the state cannot
forgive an overpayment on the pua program even if the state is at fault the recipient is on the hook
this is what makes the pua program most stringent most strict and much more tougher when it comes
to overpayments than state unemployment benefits and states often start collecting the overpayment
automatically by withholding a portion sometimes as low as 30 percent sometimes as high as 100
of future unemployment benefit payments because the states have to find a way to actually get the
money back now keep in mind the state unemployment benefit system is designed to calculate benefits
using w-2 forms employer records pay stubs and other documents associated with traditional jobs
since self-employed workers gig workers part-time workers don't have that type of documentation
the pua program was set up a little differently in fact it was less stringent and that resulted
in many overpayments and now states are saying oops we overpaid we need to get the money back now
keep in mind overpayments under the federal pua program cannot be waived but applicants can appeal
demands for reimbursement after the notice is issued according to an article on the new
york times by the way we'll provide you with the link to the article and our resource in
the description section below but the time for the appeal is usually very short in some cases
it can be as low as seven days this adds to the overall stress that an individual who's
already living on the edge financially is facing imagine you're living on the edge financially and
somebody's hounding you for payment that you did not know you had to pay back this is an absolutely
horrific situation let me know if you've gotten a letter like this from the pua program in your
state let me know in the comments section below you'll find a link to all of our resources in
the description section below i appreciate you watching let me know what you think that's it
everybody thank you so much for watching my name is dr nitin choda with ignition time if
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bye
so