Code of Massachusetts Regulations › 430 CMR - DEPARTMENT OF UNEMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE › Title 430 CMR 6.00 - Waiver Regulations › Section 6.03 - Definitions

Current through Register 1525, July 5, 2024
The following words and phrases, as used in
				430
				CMR 6.03, shall have the following meanings,
				unless otherwise clearly indicated by the context of
				430 CMR
				6.00.
Against Equity
and
Good
				Conscience
means the following:
(a) that recovery of an overpayment will be considered
				inequitable if an overpaid claimant, by reason of the overpayment, relinquished
				a valuable right or changed his or her position for the worse. In reaching such
				a decision, the overpaid claimant's financial circumstances are irrelevant;
				or
(b) that the overpaid claimant demonstrates to the director
				that he or she is indigent by presenting documentation showing either:
1. current receipt of any of the following Emergency Assistance
				to Elderly, Disabled and Children (EAEDC) benefits, public assistance under
				Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children (TAFDC), benefits under
				the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP), Supplemental Security
				Income (SSI) benefits or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) benefits
				combined with SSI, or Veterans' Benefits under M.G.L. c. 115; or
2. income, after taxes, that is 150% or less of the current
				poverty threshold established annually by the Community Services Administration
				pursuant to the Economic Opportunity Act § 625, as amended.
Claimant
means any individual who has
				filed a claim for unemployment benefits.
Correctness
as used in the phrase
				"correctness of the application of the overpayment" applies to the correctness
				of the identity of the overpaid claimant whose benefits are being offset, the
				correctness of the total amount of the overpayment being offset, but does not
				apply to the amount of the offset chosen by the Department pursuant to
				430
				CMR 6.04.
Defeat the Purposes of Benefits Otherwise
				Authorized
means that recovery of the overpayment would deprive
				the overpaid claimant, or individuals dependent on the claimant, of income
				required for ordinary and necessary living expenses. This depends upon whether
				the overpaid claimant or his dependents have income or financial resources
				sufficient for more than ordinary and necessary needs, or are dependent upon
				all current income for such needs. Ordinary and necessary living expenses
				include, but shall not be limited to:
(a) fixed living expenses, such as food and clothing, rent,
				mortgage payments, utilities, accident and health insurance, taxes, and
				work-related transportation expenses;
(b) medical and hospitalization expenses;
(c) expenses for the support of others for whom the individual
				is legally responsible;
(d) other miscellaneous expenses which may reasonably be
				considered as part of an individual's necessary and ordinary living
				expenses.
Fault
, as used in the phrase "without
				fault", applies only to the fault of the overpaid claimant. Fault on the part
				of the Department in making the overpayment does not relieve the overpaid
				claimant of liability for repayment. In determining whether an individual is at
				fault, the Director, or the Director's authorized representative will consider
				the nature and cause of the overpayment and the capacity of the particular
				claimant to recognize the error resulting in the overpayment, such as the
				claimant's age and intelligence as well as any physical, mental, educational,
				or linguistic limitation, including lack of facility with the English language.
				A good faith mistake of fact by the claimant in the filing of a claim for
				benefits that results in an overpayment of benefits does not constitute fault.
				A claimant shall be at fault if the overpayment resulted from the
				claimant:
(a) furnishing information that the claimant knew, or
				reasonably should have known, to be incorrect; or
(b) failing to furnish information that the claimant knew or
				reasonably should have known to be material; or
(c) accepting of a payment that the claimant knew, or
				reasonably should have known was incorrect.
Overpaid Claimant
means any person who
				has been determined to have received an overpayment of unemployment
				benefits.
Overpayment
means any amount of
				unemployment benefits the amount of which it has been determined that a person
				has received in excess of that which he, or she, was entitled to under the
				applicable law.
Unemployment Benefits
means any
				monetary payment of benefits, including dependency allowances, which
				are,
(a) made pursuant to M.G.L. c. 151A, and intended to replace
				income lost by reason of unemployment; or
(b) made under Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, Pandemic
				Emergency Unemployment Compensation, Federal Extended Benefits, Federal
				Pandemic Unemployment Compensation, Lost Wages Assistance and Mixed Earner
				Unemployment Compensation, but excluding benefits under Disaster Unemployment
				Assistance; or
(c) made through the Department pursuant to some other state or
				federal law which authorizes the Department to waive recovery of overpayments.
				430 CMR
				6.00 applies to benefits described in
				430
				CMR 6.03(1)(b) to the
				extent that they are not inconsistent with any standards or procedures which
				may be established by the law under which the benefit payments are made.