Dashers that have to pay back unemployemnt benefits

When the Covid 19 outbreak spread across our world in 2020, if left an impact that none of us had ever seen. Businesses were closing down. People were out of work, and the unemployment rates shot up like we had never seen before. This led to an extreme number of workers filing for unemployment benefits.

During this time, though a special pandemic program, gig workers were able to qualify for unemployment. This was certainly different from regular unemployment as gig workers normally would not be able to qualify due to their status of being independent contractors.

I began receiving unemployment in 2020, and it really helped me make ends meet. But, during the second half of 2022, I was contacted via mail by the unemployment office, and they wanted their money back! Uh oh! I found myself with a real problem. If you have been contacted by the unemployment office requesting that you pay back money that you received, maybe my story will help you.

 

Doordash driver receiving unemployment benefits

During most of 2020, I did not do much dashing. In fact, I believe that I didn't dash at all from March of 2020 up until November or December. During this time, I was receiving unemployment. Then, I began dashing a little bit here and there, but I still continued to receive unemployment without reporting any income to them. I'm not going to lie. I got used of receiving those bi-weekly deposits in to my bank account.

As we entered 2021, I slowly began to start dashing more and more. Eventually, I started earning $300 to $500 per week dashing. Every week I would tell myself that I would cut the unemployment, but it never happened. I continued to receive unemployment checks while at the same time dashing. Did I report my Doordash earnings? No, I did not. I ended up collecting unemployment until they finally cut me off at the end of 2021. It was hard for me to personally cut off that money!

This dasher was prepared to pay back the unemployment benefits

While collecting unemployment, I began to look at it as a loan. I knew that eventually they would come after me asking for the money back. It was going to be a lot of money that I would have to pay back. We were talking at least 20K!

Having 6 dependent in my home, I didn't care. It was helping me out, and I would deal with the consequences later. I mean, I would have survived and been fine without the unemployment, but if they were offering this money which made my life easier, why not take it?

Unemployment office contacts this dasher at the end of 2022

I received a letter from the unemployment office in late 2022. The letter basically said that I would have to pay all the money back. I was not surprised. My thought was just "Okay, the time has come." I was just hoping the monthly payments would not be too much. A couple hundred dollars per month would be fine, but what I kept thinking they would want much more than that.

Unemployment office wanted this dasher to pay the money back

In the letter, I was given an option to prove that I was allowed to receive the unemployment benefits that I received. I could set up a hearing with a judge which would be done over the telephone. A part of me though what's the use, but I thought why not try and get out of this mess. I set up the hearing, and a date and time was set. The judge was to call me up on a certain date and time.

Unemployment hearing over the telephone

When the time came, I received that telephone call from a judge. She did most of the talking, and I was to just answer her questions. She wanted to know what I was doing in 2019; which surprised me. I told here that I delivered for Doordash. She requested transcripts from the I.R..S. for 2019 and 2020.

This was great as I proved that I delivered for Doordash in 2019 and that the pandemic led to a slow down for me in 2020 (which I didn't dash much.) It really surprised me that she was so interested in what was going on before the pandemic.  

From what I learned, the judge wanted to make sure that I was deserving of the unemployment benefits that I received, and this had a lot to do with what I was doing in 2019. I would send in my 2019 I.R.S. transcripts which showed that I had income from Doordash. My 2020 I.R.S. transcripts would show that I didn't dash for almost the entire year. This all seemed to work in my favor. I was to send all of my information to the provided unemployment office address, and they would send me a final decision.

 

 

As a bonus to the judge, I sent her my year to date earnings for my 2022 Doordash earnings. I figured this would give me some brownie points. It wasn't for the whole year as we were still in 2022, but I printed out my weekly earnings from Doordash up to that point in time.

I want to point out that during my conversation with the judge, there were times when I would try to explain why I didn't dash due to Covid, and she would immediately cut me off.

I wanted her to know that I have older people and children at home at didn't want to catch and bring this virus home to them. She didn't want to hear anything about the pandemic. Her only statement on the subject was that we all know about the pandemic but that her only interest was my earnings.

This dasher receiving the final decision from the unemployment office

After mailing all of my earnings information into the I.R.S., it would take about five weeks before I received a reply. I opened the 8X10" envelope and read it. The judge had found in my favor, and I did not owe any back pay to the unemployment agency. The case was closed. This was great!

To think that I was just going to let it slide and deal with the consequences baffles my mind. The reason for this kind of thinking was that I pretty much thought that I wasn't deserving of unemployment, but apparently I was. The main interest of the unemployment office is to find out what you were doing before the pandemic hit. They want to make sure that you are honest about it. 

I hope this helps anybody that is in a similar situation and is not sure what to do or expect. In my opinion, no matter what your situation is, it is best to schedule a hearing and see what happens. What's the worst that can happen? You owe the money. This is what will happen if you don't do anything anyways so go on ahead and give it a shot.