New Mexicans who mistakenly received more unemployment insurance money than they should have are off the hook for returning those erroneous overpayments.
The New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions (NMDWS) announced Friday it has received approval from federal authorities to issue a blanket waiver, allowing the department to forgive the overpayments, which were part of an economic stimulus effort during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are grateful to the U.S. Department of Labor for granting this blanket waiver, which allows the department to continue reevaluating overpayments for claimants who were paid incorrectly due to the unprecedented expansion of benefits and rapidly changing rules of that time,” NMDWS Cabinet Secretary Sarita Nair said. “This waiver provides much-needed relief to individuals who were overpaid pandemic benefits through no fault of their own.”
The blanket waiver applies to eligible individuals who received Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) benefits.
The NMDWS paid some benefits in error, which established an overpayment that some claimants were required to pay back. The state later petitioned the Labor Department for permission to waive those amounts.
The waiver doesn’t cover pandemic-aid overpayments related to fraud; those must be repaid in full.
NMDWS will send out information regarding the blanket waiver via claimants’ preferred correspondence methods.
“The FPUC waiver is the latest effort by NMDWS to address the challenges stemming from the pandemic,”a press release announcing the waiver read. “The department is also reevaluating other overpayment waivers, as well as collaborating with the Office of the Inspector General in the ongoing pursuit of fraudsters who proliferated during the pandemic.”