The Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) may determine you were paid too much in unemployment benefits. If this happens, you will have to repay them, unless you successfully appeal the determination.

Two examples of scenarios where you have to repay unemployment benefits are:

• You received more unemployment benefits than you should have received, and
• Your former employer disagreed with your claim for unemployment benefits.

IDES can collect the overpayment from you by taking part of your future unemployment benefits. They can also take from your tax refund, money owed to you from the unclaimed property fund, or wages if you are a state employee.

Overpayment notice

If IDES says you were overpaid benefits, you will receive a Notice of Reconsideration and Recoupment Decision. The notice will state the amount that IDES determines you were overpaid. It will also include the reason for the overpayment. IDES has the right to collect the overpaid amount from you. You have the right to appeal whether you were overpaid.

Collection of an overpayment

In the notice, IDES will ask you to pay back the overpayment. You do not have to agree to do so. You also do not have to sign anything they send to you. If you disagree with the decision, you should wait until you have exhausted your appeal(s) before paying back the alleged overpayment.

Voluntary repayment

You may repay the entire amount by check, money order, or credit card issued in your name. To do so, follow the directions in the Notice of Reconsideration and Recoupment Decision.

If you do decide that you want to pay off the recoupment amount, but you find that you cannot pay the entire amount at once, you can ask IDES if you can pay the debt in installments.

To make an installment agreement, you will need to talk with IDES' Benefit Overpayment Collection at (800) 245-­9762 (TDD (800) 662-3943).

Waiver or being excused from paying pandemic-era overpayments

Separately, IDES sends you a waiver request form notice. In order to be granted the waiver you will need to prove:

• You were not at fault,
• The recoupment is against equity and good conscience,
• The benefits were received on or after March 8, 2020, but before the end of the pandemic period on May 11, 2023, and
• You request the waiver within 45 days of the mailing date on the waiver request form notice.

If you get a pandemic period waiver, you can get rid of your overpayment debt for the pandemic time frame. Decisions related to pandemic period waivers can be appealed. These waivers may not be granted at first, so you may have to appeal to get this waiver.

Being excused from recoupment of benefits

If you don't receive a pandemic-era waiver, and you do not agree to repay the amount, IDES may recoup the overpayment from future money owed to you by the State of Illinois Comptroller, including by keeping up to 25% of any future unemployment benefits you receive until the total amount is paid.

Normally, IDES has only 5 years to collect those benefits. That deadline begins running from the date it found you were ineligible for benefits you received.

For example, if IDES found that on January 1, 2021, you were ineligible for benefits you previously received, it would have until December 31, 2026, to collect that overpayment. If you applied for unemployment benefits in 2027, IDES could not keep any of that money to cancel out the recoupment amount.

If IDES withholds part of your subsequent unemployment benefits, you may request a recoupment waiver from IDES before payment is due.

In order to be given a waiver, you must show that: 

• You did not provide any false information or keep any information from IDES; and
• You will suffer financial hardship if you have to pay. This means that if you made the payment, you would not be able to afford food, medicine, housing, or another necessity. 

Exception to the 5-year deadline and 25% limit

There is an exception to this 5-­year deadline if IDES determines that the overpayment occurred because you committed fraud. Fraud means:

• You lied to the Agency, or 
• You failed to disclose an important fact (such as you earned income while collecting unemployment).

In that case:

• IDES faces no deadline to recoup those payments;
• It can withhold the entire amount of your benefits; and 
• You will be ineligible for unemployment benefits for up to 26 weeks or for 2 years from the date you first committed fraud.

Also, the amount of benefits you otherwise would have received during this period does not cancel out the recoupment amount. If you are eligible for benefits after the penalty period, IDES may keep all of your benefits until the debt is fully paid, and you may not be eligible for a recoupment waiver.

IDES may also file a lawsuit against you in court to collect the overpayment amount. The same deadlines apply.­ IDES has 5 years to file suit if there was no fraud but has no deadline if fraud is involved.

Finally, IDES may seek repayment through your income tax returns (the same deadline applies).