HUBER HEIGHTS — Cheri Crothers, an out-of-work travel agent in Springfield, says she suddenly owes the state of Ohio close to $10,000.
She says it’s money that the state told her they overpaid her in Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, or PUA Program money and now, she has to pay it all back.
Crothers says this happened after getting jobless benefits through the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services for weeks without any issue.
Crothers reached out to News Center 7 and one of Ohio’s U.S. Senators for help.
“I owe the state roughly, let’s see right now about $9,770,” Crothers said as she checked her notes during a virtual interview with News Center 7′s John Bedell Monday afternoon. “That’s my problem,” Crothers said with a laugh.
She’s been a travel agent for 30 years. Like a lot industries, the pandemic has not been kind to Crothers’ line of work.
“This industry really has taken a hit,” she said. “I think I know a lot of my friends are getting out of the business. I have about two weeks left to decide if I’m going to stay in or retire.”
Crothers works as an independent contractor for a travel agency, or, at least she did. She’s been out of work for weeks. All the while, she’s been collecting jobless benefits through Ohio’s PUA Program.
PUA funds are federal money sent to the state to distribute to folks like Crothers who are either independent contractors, self-employed or part-time workers who are not eligible for state jobless benefits here in Ohio.
Crothers said the state originally approved 400-dollars a week for her PUA benefits, but now she said it’s closer to $85.50 a week. She says the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services hasn’t been able to explain the dramatic drop in weekly benefits or even if the difference between the two amounts is being applied to that nearly-$10,000 she claims the state says she owes.
“And I have not been able to get any kind of satisfactory answers from these people,” Crothers said of ODJFS. So, she reached out to News Center 7 and Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown’s office for help since her problem involves federal funds.
News Center 7 reached out to Senator Brown’s office for this story on Monday.
In response, his office sent a statement to WHIO that said, “Senator Brown’s office has heard from Ohioans across the state about unemployment overpayments. The Senator has been clear that Ohioans should not be on the hook for overpayment mistakes that were out of their control. He wrote to ODJFS in June urging the state agency to waive recoupment of state UI overpayments when the state is at fault. He also supported efforts to waive the recoupment of federal PUA in the HEROES Act, which Mitch McConnell and Republicans have refused to bring to the Senate floor for a vote. He also recently introduced a bill, the American Worker Holiday Relief Act, with Sen. Wyden to require states to waive repayment for individuals who received overpayments of PUA if the overpayment was not the fault of the individual and requiring repayment would be contrary to equity and good conscience. The bottom line is: Sen. Brown believes we need to ensure Ohioans are not left holding the bag for overpayment mistakes when they are already struggling due to these public health and economic crises.”
News Center 7 also reached out to ODJFS. In an email Monday, an agency spokesman said, “Because of federal and state unemployment confidentiality laws, we are prohibited from discussing specifics of any individual who may or may not be receiving unemployment assistance,” but then added they could, “see about providing some information for your story.” However, ODJFS has not responded any further as of close of business Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Crothers says she’s just peeved at the prospect of having to foot the bill for somebody else’s mistake.
“I’m a travel agent. And if I make a mistake in your booking on a trip and it’s my mistake, I don’t call you up and say, ‘hey, there’s been an error in your trip cost and you now owe me ‘x’ dollars.’ I don’t do that – that’s my mistake and I cover that. So this is what really annoys me,” Crothers said. “They’re asking people who are self-employed or independent contractors, ‘here we’re going to give you ‘x’ amount of dollars’ and then 6 or 7 weeks later, they come back and say, ‘hey now you owe us this money back.’ Now, how are they proposing we’re going to pay this back when if we’re not working?”