ARIZONA, USA — Among the stack of paperwork he's received from Arizona's Department of Economic Security, is another letter asking Eric Elliott for money, saying he never should have qualified for unemployment benefits in the first place.
"$9,200 they're trying to get out of me," Elliott said.
That is money the DES already paid out to him when he qualified for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA).
Elliott appealed the decision that he never should have qualified for the pandemic-era unemployment benefit.
"I was qualified. My business was closed from March 20 to December 2021. I paid all my taxes on my benefits. I went through adjudication for God's sake," Elliott said.
Elliott says he had a pedicab business he ran downtown, but work stopped when the pandemic hit.
The PUA benefits are what Elliott says "saved" him.
"It was incredible. I was literally getting down to the brass tacks, as they say. And when it came, it was nice, but it was all instantly evaporated into new bills and trying to replace my savings of what I lost," Elliott said.
Following his appeal, in Elliott's email inbox sit two contradicting letters.
"I don't know. I have no idea," Elliott says looking at the letters.
The letters were sent on the same day: One that says he was determined to be eligible for the program and one that says he didn't.
"Clearly there's some red tape, procedural problems over there and they need to be fixed," State Rep. Mitzi Epstein (D - District 18) said.
Epstein has been calling for an audit of DES since 2020, but it's been denied in the legislature. Epstein blames partisan politics.
In an email to 12News, a DES spokesperson said the agency has flagged about 88,000 claims, including about 56,000 that are determined to be "non-fraud overpayments."
"Regardless of whether they were eligible or not, too many people are getting these bills saying, 'You have to pay us that unemployment insurance back.' And the worst of it is we could see it coming when it was happening two years ago," Epstein said.
12News did contact both State House Republican and State Senate Republican spokespeople regarding DES' overpayments but have not heard back.
A 2021 report by Arizona's Auditor General found that the department not only paid over $4.4 billion in fraudulent unemployment claims but also found DES overpaid claims and didn't know how much money was sent by mistake.
As of the department's latest numbers, that totals about $193 million between 2021 and 2022.
Now, Epstein said she wants to see the state take action.
"The state has funds that can be applied to help these people. And that's what should be done," Epstein said.
In an email to 12News, State Senator Theresa Hatathlie (D-District 7) said her office continues to deal with DES' pandemic unemployment issues, and continually receives concerned calls from constituents about the overpayment letters.
"The Democratic caucus and myself continue to call on Governor Ducey to provide clarity on this situation and stop the collecting of repayments until DES fixes the disparities in their systems that is creating economic stress for thousands of Arizona families," Hatathlie said in the email.
12News has been asking for an interview with DES Director Michael Wisehart since we last spoke with him in July 2020. However, over these past two years, those requests have either been ignored or denied.
It's the uncertainty that Elliott is left with that has him asking for action too.
"Is that the fault of myself or anybody else that qualified for the program? No, that is the director of DES’ fault," Elliott said.
“The federal Department of Labor requires that all state agencies operating unemployment insurance programs to pursue and recoup overpayments made to clients. DES is attempting to be as flexible as possible under the current federal guidance and regulations,” a spokesperson said in part of an emailed statement.
A DES spokesperson would not comment on Elliott's specific case.
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