Recovery of Overpaid Benefits          

Under the Unemployment Security Act, the fund is required to correct any errors — meaning that it must recover any benefit that has been overpaid or paid without justification.

• As an applicant, you are obliged to inform the fund of any circumstances or changes that may affect the granting or payment of your benefit. Examples include receiving sickness allowance, pension, child care support, income from self-employment, or employment income, all of which can affect your entitlement.
• Recovery, or overpayment, means that the fund may reclaim benefits that were paid in excess if it later receives retroactive information that affects the payment of your benefit.
• A benefit may need to be recovered, for example, due to: a retroactive labour policy statement from the employment authorities, another retroactively granted benefit, or an error made by the fund. Another retroactive benefit may include, for example, a waiting period (sanction) imposed retroactively by the employment authorities, wages reported to the income register, or a granted pension.
• As the applicant, you are also responsible for informing the fund if you apply for any other social benefit, even if a decision on that benefit has not yet been made. You can read more about other social benefits that affect the earnings-related allowance here.

How the fund contacts you about benefit recovery

Before making a recovery decision, the fund will send the applicant a hearing letter (notification of overpayment). In this letter, you have the opportunity to provide your own explanation regarding the overpayment and propose a repayment plan to the fund.

• The fund may also ask for your consent to correct or revoke the original decision in order to speed up the handling of the case.
• If you do not give consent to correct the erroneous decision, the fund must request permission to revoke the decision from the Social Security Appeals Board (SAMU).
• The fund may waive the recovery partially or entirely if, for example, the overpayment did not result from fraudulent behavior or if the amount overpaid is minor.
• If you wish to request leniency (a reduction of the amount to be repaid), the fund will ask you to provide a statement about your financial and social circumstances.
• The fund will issue both a formal appealable decision on the recovery and a new daily allowance decision.
• If you notice that you have received unemployment allowance payments in excess or by mistake, you should contact the fund immediately.

A separate form titled “Statement of Financial and Social Circumstances for the Unemployment Fund” can be downloaded here:
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