PA UC overpayment waiver approved - will I get remaining benefits on 2020 claim?
Hey everyone, I'm a bit confused about my overpayment situation. I got a notice in February saying I was overpaid about $4,200 on my unemployment from 2020. I filed a waiver request explaining my financial hardship and just got approved (thank goodness!). But here's what I'm wondering - I still had about $3,100 left in my benefit amount when my claim ended. Since they've now determined I wasn't actually overpaid, will I be able to collect that remaining balance? Or is it just that I don't have to pay back the money they said I owed? Anyone dealt with this before? My benefit year ended long ago but I'm still curious if those funds might be available since the waiver got approved.
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Oliver Cheng
No, unfortunately a waiver approval just means you don't have to pay back what they determined was an overpayment. It doesn't mean you get any remaining funds from an expired benefit year. Those benefits expired when your benefit year ended, which for a 2020 claim would have been long ago. PA UC doesn't retroactively pay benefits from expired claims, even with an overpayment waiver approval.
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Ashley Simian
•Oh darn, that's what I was afraid of. Thanks for the quick answer though. At least I don't have to worry about paying back that $4,200 which is a huge relief!
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Taylor To
congrats on the waiver!! i been waiting 3 months for mine to get approved. did they send you a letter or did you see it online first?
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Ashley Simian
•I got a letter in the mail first, then about a week later it showed up in my dashboard. The whole process took about 5 months for me, so hang in there!
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Ella Cofer
DONT LISTEN TO THEM!! I had this EXACT situation with my 2020 claim. Once your waiver is approved you ABSOLUTELY CAN request the remaining balance. You need to call the UC office and specifically ask for a representative who handles waiver approvals. They won't volunteer this information because they dont want to pay out!!! I got my remaining $2700 about 3 weeks after my waiver was approved but ONLY because I called and specifically asked for it.
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Oliver Cheng
•I'm sorry, but this is incorrect information. Standard PA UC policy is that benefits cannot be paid beyond the benefit year end date, which is typically 12 months after the claim was filed. A waiver approval only means you don't have to repay what was determined to be an overpayment - it doesn't reopen an expired claim or allow access to unused benefits from years ago. Please be careful about spreading misinformation as it can cause people to waste time and get their hopes up unnecessarily.
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Kevin Bell
I went through something similar with my overpayment last year. Just to clarify - was your original claim regular UC or was it PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance)? The rules were different for PUA claims, and that might be causing some confusion in the responses you're getting.
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Ashley Simian
•It was a PUA claim from 2020. Does that make a difference with how they handle remaining benefits?
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Kevin Bell
•That explains it! PUA had different rules than regular UC. With PUA claims, there were special provisions during COVID. However, the PUA program ended completely in September 2021, so regardless of whether your waiver was approved, there's no mechanism to pay out remaining PUA benefits now in 2025. The program no longer exists at the federal level, so even with a waiver approval, those funds aren't accessible anymore. The good news is you don't have to repay what was considered an overpayment.
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Savannah Glover
my cousin works for unemployment and she says sometimes you can get the money and sometimes you cant it depends on what type of waiver you got and if its fault or nonfault overpayment. did they say which one yours was??
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Ashley Simian
•The letter said it was a non-fault overpayment waiver approval. I think based on what others are saying though, since it was a PUA claim from 2020 and that program ended completely, there's no way to get those remaining funds now.
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Felix Grigori
I worked on some PUA claims during the pandemic. To clarify this situation: PUA was a temporary federal program that ended in September 2021. Even with an overpayment waiver approval in 2025, there is no mechanism to pay out additional benefits from a program that no longer exists. Your waiver approval simply means you don't have to return the overpayment amount they initially requested. Side note: If you're still dealing with other unemployment issues and having trouble reaching someone at PA UC, you might want to try Claimyr (claimyr.com). They have a service that helps connect you with an actual agent instead of dealing with busy signals and disconnects. They have a video that shows how it works here: https://youtu.be/CEPETxZdo9E?si=WL1ZzVZWG3KiHrg2. I recommended it to several people who had complex overpayment or appeal situations.
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Ashley Simian
•Thank you for explaining it so thoroughly! And thanks for the Claimyr suggestion - I'm actually dealing with a separate regular UC issue now (completely different from my old PUA claim), and I've been hitting nothing but busy signals for two weeks. I'll check out that video and see if it helps.
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Taylor To
wait so was ur waiver financial hardship or fault overpayment? im confused which one to apply for
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Ashley Simian
•Mine was a financial hardship waiver for a non-fault overpayment. They determined I received the money because of a calculation error on their end (not my fault), but I still had to request a waiver based on financial hardship to avoid having to pay it back.
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Taylor To
•ok thx im going to try that too. hope mine gets approved like urs did!!
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Felicity Bud
Interesting thread. I actually wrote an appeal letter last year for my husband when he got hit with a $5,300 overpayment notice from his 2020 claim. We won the appeal but never thought to ask about getting the remaining funds. Now I'm curious if we missed out on something! Btw @profile1 I used that Claimyr thing you mentioned when we were dealing with the appeal. It actually worked - got through to someone in like 15 minutes when we'd been trying for weeks.
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Kevin Bell
•For a 2020 claim, especially if it was PUA, you didn't miss anything. Those programs ended completely in September 2021, so there's no mechanism to pay out any remaining funds now, even with successful appeals or waivers. The good news is that you won your appeal and didn't have to pay back the $5,300!
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