LANSING, Mich. — The Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency is pausing its collections on overpayments on Federal pandemic unemployment benefits.
The announcement was made on Friday, April 8 leading up to a testimony to the Michigan Joint House and Senate Oversight Committee on Wednesday by the Director of the UIA, Julia Dale.
Dale said during the testimony that the pause means that state tax refunds won't be intercepted by the UIA and they won't be issuing any new garnishment of worker's wages.
It is expected that nearly 400,000 Michigander's claims will be affected, not including those that are determined to be fraudulent.
The pause in collections will remain in place until at least May 7 and the UIA has also issued a formal request to the Department of Labor (DOL) for an extension.
During the pause, the UIA's IT staff will continue with the development work and testing necessary to implement the processes to apply the overpayment waivers in accordance with DOL guidance. The staff is building in new functionality to issue any refunds simultaneously with the application of waivers.
"If testing continues to go as planned, we will implement the first round of waivers the weekend of April 29. This first group accounts for 96% of those eligible for overpayment waivers and will result in the waiver of more than $420 million in debt," said Dale during her testimony. "I am happy to say that in a few short weeks more, we'll have more than 350,000 Michiganders with answers to the requests that they've had related to overpayment waivers."
Dale noted that the decade-old system in place at the UIA is difficult to make changes to and that further development of their computer systems in necessary to better serve the community.
The UIA's website did see a recent update that is easier to navigate and has better organized content. The site also is optimized for mobile devices so claimants and employers can more easily find the information they need.
The UIA will continue to work on their computer systems over the next several weeks to implement needed changes to better process waivers.
"In the coming weeks we will continue to work out the additional population groups for waivers and it is my hope by the end of this week, I will know how much in refunds will go along with those waiver debt that is waived," Dale added.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.