If you received a non-fraud overpayment for federal pandemic benefit payments, you can apply for an overpayment waiver.
Did you get an email with “PUA Blanket Waiver – Double payment” in the subject line?
You may be eligible for a blanket overpayment waiver. This means you do not have to pay the overpayment back and will get a refund if you already paid back some of the overpayment.
There are a few ways you can request an overpayment waiver.
Follow these instructions to find the overpayment waiver link in your UC or PUA portal.
Login to your portal to and on your dashboard click “View Your Benefit Summary.”
Scroll down to the “Overpayment Determinations” grid. Click on the “Request Waiver” link in the far right column in the grid.
This will take you to the overpayment waiver request form. The first page of the form looks like this:
If you cannot find a link in your portal, that may mean you are not eligible for an overpayment waiver.
There is no deadline for when you can request an overpayment waiver. But the sooner you send in a waiver, the better.
If your overpayment waiver is approved, the government will not be able to offset any benefits from future benefits payments AND they have to repay any past benefits that they took.
If your overpayment waiver is denied, you can appeal the denial.
- If your waiver is for an overpayment related to a UC claim, visit our UC appeals page for more info.
- If your waiver is for an overpayment related to a PUA claim, visit our PUA appeals page for more info.
Currently, there is no timeline on how long it will take the Department of Labor to approve or deny your overpayment waiver. There is a huge backlog of overpayment waivers that still need to be decided on.
You can ignore any notices that said you need to file your overpayment waiver with an appeal or else it will be denied. These were incorrectly issued according to the Department of Labor and Industry.
The Service Center makes the decision to approve or deny an overpayment waiver.
Federal guidance states that the Department of Labor and Industry is required to stop collecting overpayments while a waiver request is pending, but unfortunately, the PUA and UC systems have not been able to do this.
If you need the Department to stop offsetting your benefits, you should email [email protected] and inform them that you have submitted a waiver and they need to stop offsetting your payments.
No. Unfortunately, Extended Benefits was an extension program that Pennsylvania provided to UC claimants. It was not a federal pandemic benefit extension. You can only request an overpayment waiver for federal pandemic benefit extensions.