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You may have been overpaid on unemployment. The state will want the money back

How big is the problem? And how could you possibly avoid it?

NEW YORK — You probably have a good idea of how unemployment assistance works.

Once you're approved, the government gives you a certain amount of money to help you make ends meet until you find a new job.

Plenty of people are doing that during the pandemic. But it turns out, the state overpaid benefits to a lot of people and now they want that money back. 

Several states are seeing this problem, including ours.

We've heard from several people who say they're now being forced to pay back money that was overpaid to them.

Our Charlotte sister station met an Army veteran who was on the hook to pay back $11,000.

In Ohio, the state says more than 160,000 people received overpayments in August and September.

In Pennsylvania, a vendor processed Duplicate payments sending out too much money to multiple people.

It's not clear how many people here have been overpaid, but the state's website says the main cause is improperly reporting income. 

The Department of Employment Security has more information and how to potentially avoid this sort of problem on their website. 

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