Stay-at-home mom told she owes state overpaid unemployment benefits

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. ( WATE ) — A stay-at-home mom has been told she owes the state for an overpaid unemployment benefit more than a year after the payment was issued.

Melaney Norris has stayed at home with her 18-month-old daughter, Olivia, since her birth.
Prior to being a new mom, Norris worked for a doctor’s office as a technician, but when the pandemic hit in March 2020, the office was temporarily shut down.

“Because of the pandemic we had to close,” Norris said. “The facility stated that we could draw unemployment for the time we were closed. So, we did apply”

She received this letter from the state in April 2020 that she was eligible for unemployment benefits.

During the height of the pandemic four years ago, Tennessee residents filed over one million unemployment claims, according to the State Labor Department. The federal government requires the state to audit each of those claims. It’s a massive job and has taken several years to accomplish.

Nearly four years after Norris was told she was eligible for the benefits, a surprising letter came from the state.

“Our records indicate your balance for overpaid unemployment benefits has not been paid to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development,” Norris said.

“As far as you know, had you been overpaid?” investigative reporter Don Dare asked. Norris replied, “Not to my knowledge.”

The state claims Mrs. Norris owes $705, and it’s due by the end of April.

Norris said she received the notice on February 29, 2024, but the document states the determination date was January 20, 2023. To receive some clarity, Norris went to the local Labor and Workforce Development office on Middlebrook Pike in Knoxville.

“To see if this is legit, maybe help me out because I don’t feel like I owe this. I don’t see that I had any overpayment,” Norris said.

Then in early March of this year, Norris received a more detailed letter regarding her overpayment.

“It states that on the week ending on 4/4/2020, I was granted $600. Also, 4/4/2020, same day, $105. So apparently that’s where they are getting the $705.

“Did you bring that to the attention to the people there in the Middlebrook office?” Dare asked. “I did. The lady stated that it must have been a typo, that it was meant to be for the whole month of April,” Norris replied.

We contacted the state. The state’s response said: “Mrs. Norris was overpaid for one week. The department says it emailed her an overpayment statement each month beginning in 2023. And, it says, she never attempted to set up an agreement to make the payments.”

Norris said no messages like that were sent to her last year. She said she checks her email daily and if she had received the message, she would have made it right. Now that she knows, she said she will find a way to pay back the money.

“I’ll have to pay it. It is going to be hard. I’ll have to do monthly payments,” Norris said.

While the state said Norris chose email as her preferred communication method, Norris said she wonders why the Labor Department did not mail her the notice of overpayment when they did not receive a response last year. She said it had mailed her that notice, she would have responded a year ago.

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