Effective: October 17, 2019
Latest Legislation: House Bill 166 - 133rd General Assembly
(A) If the director of job and family services finds that any fraudulent misrepresentation has been made by an applicant for or a recipient of benefits with the object of obtaining benefits to which the applicant or recipient was not entitled, and in addition to any other penalty or forfeiture under this chapter, then the director:
(1) Shall within four years after the end of the benefit year in which the fraudulent misrepresentation was made reject or cancel such person's entire weekly claim for benefits that was fraudulently claimed, or the person's entire benefit rights if the misrepresentation was in connection with the filing of the claimant's application for determination of benefit rights;
(2) Shall by order declare that, for each application for benefit rights and for each weekly claim canceled, such person shall be ineligible for two otherwise valid weekly claims for benefits, claimed within six years subsequent to the discovery of such misrepresentation;
(3) By order shall require that the total amount of benefits rejected or canceled under division (A)(1) of this section be repaid to the director before such person may become eligible for further benefits, and shall withhold such unpaid sums from future benefit payments accruing and otherwise payable to such claimant. Effective with orders issued on or after January 1, 1993, if such benefits are not repaid within thirty days after the director's order becomes final, interest on the amount remaining unpaid shall be charged to the person at a rate and calculated in the same manner as provided under section 4141.23 of the Revised Code. When a person ordered to repay benefits has repaid all overpaid benefits according to a plan approved by the director, the director may cancel the amount of interest that accrued during the period of the repayment plan. The director may take action in any court of competent jurisdiction to collect benefits and interest as provided in sections 4141.23 and 4141.27 of the Revised Code, in regard to the collection of unpaid contributions, using the final repayment order as the basis for such action. Except as otherwise provided in this division, no administrative or legal proceedings for the collection of such benefits or interest due, or for the collection of a penalty under division (A)(4) of this section, shall be initiated after the expiration of six years from the date on which the director's order requiring repayment became final and the amount of any benefits, penalty, or interest not recovered at that time, and any liens thereon, shall be canceled as uncollectible. The time limit for instituting proceedings shall be extended by the period of any stay to the collection or by any other time period to which the parties mutually agree.
(4) Shall, for findings made on or after October 21, 2013, by order assess a mandatory penalty on such a person in an amount equal to twenty-five per cent of the total amount of benefits rejected or canceled under division (A)(1) of this section. The first sixty per cent of each penalty collected under division (A)(4) of this section shall be deposited into the unemployment compensation fund created under section 4141.09 of the Revised Code and shall be credited to the mutualized account, as provided in division (B)(2)(g) of section 4141.25 of the Revised Code. The remainder of each penalty collected shall be deposited into the unemployment compensation special administrative fund created under section 4141.11 of the Revised Code.
(5) May take action to collect benefits fraudulently obtained under the unemployment compensation law of any other state or the United States or Canada. Such action may be initiated in the courts of this state in the same manner as provided for unpaid contributions in section 4141.41 of the Revised Code.
(6) May take action to collect benefits that have been fraudulently obtained from the director, interest pursuant to division (A)(3) of this section, and court costs, through attachment proceedings under Chapter 2715. of the Revised Code and garnishment proceedings under Chapter 2716. of the Revised Code.
(B) If the director finds that an applicant for benefits has been credited with a waiting period or paid benefits to which the applicant was not entitled for reasons other than fraudulent misrepresentation, the director shall:
(1)(a) Within six months after the determination under which the claimant was credited with that waiting period or paid benefits becomes final pursuant to section 4141.28 of the Revised Code, or within three years after the end of the benefit year in which such benefits were claimed, whichever is later, by order cancel such waiting period and require that such benefits be repaid to the director or be withheld from any benefits to which such applicant is or may become entitled before any additional benefits are paid, provided that the repayment or withholding shall not be required where the overpayment is the result of the director's correcting a prior decision due to a typographical or clerical error in the director's prior decision, or an error in an employer's report under division (G) of section 4141.28 of the Revised Code.
(b) The limitation specified in division (B)(1)(a) of this section shall not apply to cases involving the retroactive payment of remuneration covering periods for which benefits were previously paid to the claimant. However, in such cases, the director's order requiring repayment shall not be issued unless the director is notified of such retroactive payment within six months from the date the retroactive payment was made to the claimant.
(2) The director may, by reciprocal agreement with the United States secretary of labor or another state, recover overpayment amounts from unemployment benefits otherwise payable to an individual under Chapter 4141. of the Revised Code. Any overpayments made to the individual that have not previously been recovered under an unemployment benefit program of the United States may be recovered in accordance with section 303(g) of the "Social Security Act" and sections 3304(a)(4) and 3306(f) of the "Federal Unemployment Tax Act," 53 Stat. 183 (1939), 26 U.S.C.A. 3301 to 3311.
(3) If the amounts required to be repaid under division (B) of this section are not recovered within three years from the date the director's order requiring payment became final, initiate no further action to collect such benefits and the amount of any benefits not recovered at that time shall be canceled as uncollectible, provided that the time limit for collection shall be extended by the period of any stay to the collection or by any other time period to which the parties mutually agree.
(C) The appeal provisions of sections 4141.281 and 4141.282 of the Revised Code shall apply to all orders and determinations issued under this section, except that an individual's right of appeal under division (B)(2) of this section shall be limited to this state's authority to recover overpayment of benefits.
(D) The director shall deposit any repayment collected under this section that the director determines to be payment of interest or court costs into the unemployment compensation special administrative fund established pursuant to section 4141.11 of the Revised Code.
(E) If an individual makes a full repayment or a repayment that is less than the full amount required by this section, the director shall apply the repayment to the mutualized account under division (B) of section 4141.25 of the Revised Code, except that the director shall credit the repayment to the accounts of the individual's base period employers that previously have not been credited for the amount of improperly paid benefits charged against their accounts based on the proportion of benefits charged against the accounts as determined pursuant to division (D) of section 4141.24 of the Revised Code.
This division does not apply to any of the following:
(1) Federal tax refund offsets under 31 C.F.R. 285.8;
(2) Unclaimed fund recoveries under section 131.024 of the Revised Code;
(3) Lottery award offsets under section 3770.073 of the Revised Code;
(4) State tax refund offsets under section 5747.12 of the Revised Code;
(5) Unemployment compensation debts collected by the attorney general under Chapter 131. of the Revised Code.