The government is trusted with a lot just because it is the government.
It is easy to balance your checkbook and figure out if the bank overcharged you for a fee. It isn’t hard to glance over your receipt from Walmart to make sure that you weren’t charged for two loaves of bread instead of one.
But the higher-level math involved with something like unemployment? It’s a complicated formula that ends up being a percentage of a paycheck, not the whole thing. Add in the complicated nature of applying, and sometimes things go wrong.
Which is why a lot of people make mistakes, and sometimes people get more than they should have. It might be a simple error on the state’s part or the applicant’s or the employer’s, but someone always seems to figure it out and come back with an outstretched palm — or more accurately, a threatening letter. Pay up or else.
The problem is that if it was hard to figure out what was owed to start, it’s even more difficult after the amount owed includes interest. A Spotlight PA investigation is showing just how difficult because it isn’t just the taxpayer who has been getting it wrong. So has the state of Pennsylvania.
From 2006 to 2016, Pennsylvania screwed up what it was charging people for interest on unemployment overpayment. The Department of Labor and Industry billed 9% on top of what was owed. Unfortunately, it should have been billing what the annual interest rate set by the Department of Revenue was. During that period, it ranged between 3% and 8%, meaning everyone who was charged interest was charged too much.
So, how was an unemployed mechanic in Westmoreland County supposed to know that? In short, there was no way because the state didn’t own up to it.
The error was uncovered in 2016. Spotlight PA spoke to former employees who spoke about attempts to fix the problem while still not confessing it. That seems to be a habit the state can’t break.
When finally answering questions on the topic, L&I put the number of people affected at about 250,000 and said the average overpayment was about $50. Employees told Spotlight PA many topped $500 and went as high as $11,000.
How does anyone trust the state’s numbers when the state — via an Inspector General investigation — is evaluating its own performance? Isn’t this exactly why Pennsylvania has an independently elected auditor general who doesn’t answer to the governor?
The state owes people more than money — although when it does pay back what was overcharged, it ought to be with interest.
The people are owed integrity because of the trust that has to exist between them and their government. But even more, people are owed the truth when a mistake happens and not five years of trying to figure out how not to take the blame.
— The Tribune-Review, Greensburg/TNS
