Legal Question in Employment Law in Pennsylvania

Yes. It is extremely unlikely that you are looking at jail time.

UC imposes two kinds of overpayments - 1) fault, and 2) non-fault. There are not enough facts provided to determine if you have a fault or a non-fault situation. It is likely that UC will call it a fault overpayment. You would then have the option of appealing the determination to change it to a non-fault. You may want to consult an attorney to see if such an appeal has any viability.

Fault overpayments must be repaid immediately (or a payment arrangement must be put into place.) In addition UC will impose penalty weeks (weeks that will be applied to any future claim duuring which you cannot collect). A non fault overpayment does not need to be repaid and sits as a credit on your account for three years. If you file again during that time a portion of your benefits will be applied to recouping the overpayment.

In my experience, criminal sanctions are only pursued when a fault overpayment has been assessed and no repayment is made. I represented such a client with a large over-payment a few years back and he entered a guily plea with a restitution agreement and no jail time.

As a practical matter it may cost more to hire an attorney and appeal the fault determination than it would just to pay back the money that was overpaid. If the amount is small, as it appears to be the case, and it is paid back, that should be the end of the matter.

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