CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. — A Chesterfield County man got a tax bill earlier this year for money he never got from the Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) and reached out to CBS 6 for help.
Three years ago, Paul Jaszewski started getting a lot of mail from the VEC, dozens and dozens of letters saying he had to pay them back as much as $40,000.
He says he was in a panic.
"I would get, like, 20 some 10 letters in the mailbox, all say in differing amounts," he said. "I was calling and calling, and you just couldn't get through at that time, they were so busy, you know, with all the other people."
Jaszewski was out of work most of 2020 and the first half of 2021. He received weekly benefits though the VEC.
Two years after he had first qualified, they now said they believed he left his job as a truck driver and was not laid off.
Frantically, he mailed back each notification saying he wanted to appeal.
"Never got any kind of person to call me back, never heard from a deputy, never got an explanation," Jaszewski said.
His responses had no effect. Then, a year and a half after the barrage of repayment requests when Jaszewski had been back at work, he got one piece of mail from the VEC that changed everything.
"Never heard anything. And then December 2023 is when they sent me the letter saying they vacated all that amount," he said.
Jaszewki thought that appeal officer's judgment waiving the VEC's claim because so much time had elapsed settled everything.
He was laid off last summer for four weeks.
"Four weeks of accumulating, but I never got a check. Never got anything deposited," he said.
Jaszewski never got the benefits the VEC said he qualified for. And again, reaching someone there to find out why was a struggle.
"I did manage to get through in 2024 and they said it was because I owed all that money from the past and that they would just collect it and pay that off," Jaszewski said.
Somehow, despite that 2023 letter, the VEC's claim had new life and was keeping Jaszewski from collecting for this much later unemployment claim. And then he got a tax form for the money he never got.
"I just decided to drop the whole idea, until I got a 1099-G and then that's when I came to Channel 6 saying, this is it's just not fair. I went there for help for the four weeks that I was off work, and instead, I've got to pay taxes on it," he explained.
CBS 6 reached out to the VEC. A statement from communications chief Kerri O'Brien said in part they've worked through most of the pandemic backlog and:
"To give a sense of scale, just since November 2024, VEC has implemented more than 7,000 appeal decisions. While the vast majority are processed accurately, with that volume, rare mistakes can happen. That's why VEC values collaboration with stakeholders, community partners, and reporters like you who help bring important concerns to our attention."
The clarification came as welcome news for Jaszewski.
"I called in, and you guys came, and immediately they deposited what was owed to me," he said.
Jaszewski says one of the ironies of his case is that he never got the chance to prove he had been laid off because he never got a proper appeal hearing. He said he's glad that chapter is over.
CBS 6 is committed to sharing community voices on this important topic. Email your thoughts to the CBS 6 Newsroom.
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