1st Qtr 2020 State UI Overpayment and Recovery Summary: Recoveries $55M, but $1.2 Billion in Overpayments Remain.

The federal DOL has a report (ETA 227) which provides a quarterly detailed breakout of unemployment insurance overpayments and recoveries. Unfortunately, the download available is formatted without any field names and includes 329 columns, making it extremely unfriendly to use.

[I have previously suggested that the Oregon Employment Department at least post this data on the form they submit to DOL, but the last report I could find from them is from Sept 2019]. 
 
I thought it would be useful to see how much in overpayments were outstanding and how states differed in the methods they used to claw back overpayments. 

So I downloaded the report , painfully added some field names, and can highlight at least some of the data.

I created a 4 page PDF HERE  that shows the results for the US and all states in the first quarter 2020.  (A snapshot of the first row of the first page with national and Oregon totals is pasted below).

Some observations
Nationally:

1. There were $1.317 billion in overpayments at the start of the quarter, $1.261 billion at the end of the quarter, for a reduction of $55.5 million.
2. Overpayments are adjusted quarterly by a number of activities, including but not limited to recoveries. 
3. Recoveries totaled $206 million. 
4. Recoveries from federal income taxes were the highest share of total recoveries at 32%/$67.7 million. 

Oregon:

1. There were $14.9 million in overpayments at the start of the quarter; $13.4 million at the end of the quarter, for a reduction of $635,000.
2. Overpayments are adjusted quarterly by a number of activities, including but not limited to, recoveries. 
3. Recoveries totaled $3.3 million. 
4. Recoveries from "other" were the highest share of total recoveries at 32%/$1 million. [ "Other" includes disability insurance, workers compensation), court actions (civil, criminal), and outsourcing (collection by other components of the state government or by private collection agencies)].
5. The share of Oregon recoveries from federal income taxes were HALF the national average, 16% vs 32%.
6. The share of recoveries from unemployment benefit offsets were only 16% of Oregon's total recoveries vs 26% nationally. 

Courtesy, Oregon Housing Blog.