Washington state waives interest on pandemic-era unemployment insurance overpayments
Thanks to a new bill in Washington, some people may no longer owe interest on their unemployment insurance debt.
In March, the Washington state Legislature passed HB 1975. The bill removes interest on unemployment insurance overpayments from the COVID-19 pandemic era — between Feb. 2, 2020, and Sept. 4, 2021. Employment Security Department (Employment Security) will not charge interest on pandemic-era benefit overpayments until Jan. 1, 2025.
Gov. Jay Inslee signed the bill into law March 7, 2024.
Waiving interest on pandemic-era overpayments
Overpayments occur when people get unemployment benefits that they were later found to not be eligible for and must then pay back.
Normally, Employment Security charges interest on overpayments. With this new bill, Employment Security will not charge interest until the start of 2025 on pandemic-era overpayments. This gives people time to either:
• Get a waiver for their overpayment so they don’t have to repay it.
• Repay their overpayment without any extra debt building up.
Some people may have already made interest payments on their pandemic-era overpayment. In this case, Employment Security will either:
• Apply their payments toward any principal balance, penalties or interest they still owe.
• Refund their interest payments.
Before, Employment Security only waived interest when overpayments were waived. Now Employment Security will waive interest even if people have not yet applied for or had their overpayment waiver approved yet. The only exception is if the overpayment resulted from fraud. For example, someone who knowingly gave us incorrect information to get benefits would still owe interest.
Other pandemic-era overpayment relief efforts
Last year, under federal guidance, Employment Security expanded the rules for waiving pandemic-era overpayments. Since then, we have waived as many of those overpayments as we can.
Applying for a waiver has paid off for many people who had pandemic-era overpayments. To date, Employment Security has waived $71 million in overpayments for more than 49,000 people. So far, the waiver approval rate for those who have applied is 97%.
Yet, too many people have not requested a waiver. Roughly 80,000 Washingtonians still have an outstanding overpayment of over $1,000 who have not requested a waiver.
Request a pandemic-era overpayment waiver
People can request a waiver if they either:
• Have a pandemic-era overpayment to repay.
• Already repaid a pandemic-era overpayment, in full or in part, so Employment Security can refund their payments.
If you claimed benefits during the pandemic, you may have an overpayment that could be waived. Check your eServices account or review any letters we sent to you to find out. Then, learn how to submit a waiver request.
Employment Security is also looking for other ways to help people affected by pandemic-era overpayments. we continue to work with the United States Department of Labor to expand our automatic waiver program.
For more information about overpayments visit Employment Security’s overpayments page.
To view more photos of the bill signing, visit Employment Security’s Flickr webpage.
