A Maryland woman who applied for unemployment benefits through the state is now being told she owes over $10,000 in unemployment overpayment.
Dawna Johnson, a seasonal, contractual employee at a state park, says she had no issues when she initially applied for assistance through the Maryland Department of Labor for unemployment benefits.
But she then ran into issues with her online account about two weeks ago and was unable to access the system. Johnson said she tried multiple times to reset her account, to no avail, and make multiple phone calls and sent multiple emails to try to resolve the issue with no response.
Then, she received a bill in the mail claiming she owed unemployment $10,905 back. Johnson says she doesn't think she even got that much in total from unemployment.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan recently claimed that the state was doing better than most other states in handling unemployment claims, but the Labor Department says around 40,000 people have unresolved claims "because they have very complex problems that's going to take many, many months to resolve," according to Hogan.
Johnson hopes her appearance on the news leads to some answers because should she have to pay the $10k, she will "lose everything."
Source: WBAL