While Ohio may waive PUA over-payments in circumstances where it is shown that (a) the overpayments are through no fault of the claimants and (b) that to require repayment would create an undue financial burden, applying for a waiver is no substitute for appealing the determination that originally put the overpayment in place.

Each Determination Notice has its own separate appeal track.

Generally speaking, appeals should be pursued at least through a telephone hearing with the Unemployment Compensation Review Commission. Applying for a waiver, without appealing an unfavorable overpayment determination, may cause a person to miss a deadline. Focus should be on appealing the overpayment determinations, with waivers as simply a back-up plan. Each negative determination should be appealed.

Late Appeals:

Many times people chose to apply for a waiver rather than appeal the determination notice that initially put the overpayment in place. Or, perhaps, they did attempt to appeal but that appeal does not seem to have been recorded by the PUA. One can follow the instructions for filing an appeal on-line, which are found on the last page of the determination notice that put the overpayment in place. If an appeal is already recorded, an error message should appear stating that an appeal is already filed. If not, an appeal can be filed late and either the PUA, or the Unemployment Compensation Review Commission, will evaluate (a) whether the appeal was filed timely; and, if not, (b) whether to accept the appeal late.

Just as each determination has its own appeal track, waivers are also tied to each determination notice.

A person may receive two waiver decisions, approving a waiver for one determination notice but denying it for another, resulting in an overpayment still being owed. This can happen if, for example, they determine that the claimant is at fault for an issue in one determination notice but not at fault for an issue in another determination notice. If this happens, one should look at the determination number listed in the waiver decision to find which determination overpayment is waived and which is not waived. For the one that is not waiver, the person can appeal the denial of the waiver, but should also continue to appeal the overpayment determination directly.

Fault is Not the Same as Fraud

Although a determination notice may be a non-fraud determination, this does not mean the same as, “through no fault of the claimant”, as required for a waiver. For example, a person might have their benefits denied through a non-fraud determination that they failed to provide required documentation. If that determination is not appealed, a waiver application will likely be denied because that determination concluded the person was “at fault” for failing to provide documentation, even though it was non-fraud.

The language of waiver decisions is also confusing.

“It has not been shown that the overpayment is through no fault of the claimant.”

To qualify, it must be shown that the overpayment is not through the fault of the claimant. A waiver decision might state that, “it has not been shown that the overpayment is through no fault of the claimant.” What does this mean? The double negatives are confusing. It means that the waiver has been denied because they believe the claimant IS at fault. Again, the denial of the waiver can be appealed but the overpayment determination should also be appealed directly.

“Ineligible not denied.”

A waiver decision that says, “ineligible not denied,” means that they determined the person is not eligible for a waiver because the determination notice they are looking at did not cause an overpayment. A person may have several determinations with some being good and others creating overpayments. Because each determination notice has its own appeal track, and is treated separately for waivers, it is possible that the waiver was requested for a determination notice other than the one that actually caused the overpayment.

The waiver response will included the determination number that they reviewed. If is important to check which determination was reviewed and to see if there is another determination notice that caused the overpyament. If so, a separate waiver request should be made for that determination.

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