Oregon Man Receives 37 Unemployment Checks in a Day Worth More than $14,000

As thousands of Oregon residents wait to receive their unemployment benefits in the mail, one man received twice the amount he was supposed to obtain from the Oregon Employment Department in the form of 37 checks.

Daniel Mark said Saturday that he received a total of 37 checks worth $14,000 from the Oregon Employment Department after applying for the benefits under the CARES Act. He previously applied for benefits in March and was denied because he did not qualify for traditional unemployment.

Mark was surprised to receive the checks after waiting around three months for the money.

“These are all the checks, and so it’s a little over $14,000 worth of checks. Each check has its own check number, so it’s not like they’re duplicates — they’re all good checks,” Mark told KOIN.

But on Monday, Mark was told that he was overpaid twice the amount of money and could only keep half of it. He was reportedly told that he was not the first case where the Oregon Employment Department overpaid some residents.

“I could put them all in the bank, but I’m not going to. I don’t want the trouble, but I’ve waited so long for the checks, now I get the checks and I can’t use them,” Mark said.

David Gerstenfeld, interim director of the Oregon Employment Department, said that it was “certainly possible” more people have been overpaid.

“It may be human error, just because we have hundreds of thousands of claims. Even if we’re accurate 99.9 percent of the time, there’s going to be some errors,” Gerstenfeld told KOIN.

Gerstenfeld said the system does have screening measures in place to ensure people do not get duplicate payments, adding that those who were overpaid will have to return the money to the state.

“In a situation where someone receives a check, for instance, if we make an error and they cash the check, that’s not their fault. Those other penalties don’t apply,” said Gerstenfeld. “We do work with them on recovering the money, and there’s actually only some pretty limited ways that we are, by statute, allowed to recover the overpayment.”

Those who have received an incorrect or overpayment from the Employment Department are advised to report it to the fraud department of the Oregon Employment Department either online or by phone at 877-668-3204.