North Carolina looks to recover more than $69M in unemployment overpayments by Nyamekye Daniel, The Center Square | January 27, 2021 10:00 AM Print this article
The North Carolina Division of Employment Security (NCDES) overpaid more than $69 million in unemployment benefits in 2020, officials said.
The state agency has received an unprecedented number of claims because of the COVID-19 pandemic, increasing the potential for fraud, misrepresentation and errors, NCDES Assistant Secretary Pryor Gibson said. Not only did we have more money going into the regular [Unemployment Insurance] system, Gibson told the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Unemployment Insurance on Tuesday. We also had many more programs in place that constituted more overpayment scenarios.