Grandparents in ‘sheer panic’ after income is ‘ripped’ away due to Social Security’s $84,000 overpayment bill
Kreps and four others decided to file a lawsuit against the agency with David Blanchard of Ann Arbor-based Blanchard & Walker.
The young father was eligible for $362 per week from the state plus aid from the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program.
According to the Blanchard & Walker website, litigation for the Kreps et al. lawsuit is still “in progress.”
The state saw unemployment rates hit almost 23% in April 2020.
The suit claimed that thousands of workers during the pandemic had their payments frozen by the agency and had no way to appeal the action, denying them due process.
This lawsuit also led by Blanchard & Walker involved claimants who were told they owed the state money and had their wages taken or tax returns seized.
Kreps, 31, was approved for benefits for the agency in April 2020 when COVID restrictions forced him to close down his Monroe pest control business.
According to the suit, the five plaintiffs had their “well-established” right to unemployment benefits violated leaving them “without a lifeline” and in “financially dire situations.”
“Throughout this legal process, the UIA worked cooperatively with the court to establish new rules and procedures so Michigan residents won’t find themselves in a similar situation in the future.”
Kreps vowed back in 2022 that when the agency eventually pays the $25,000 he is owed, it will go to his parents.
“They say they are sending me money, but I can’t get it. My kids are hungry, we have no food, we are literally starving because we have no income.”
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“I couldn’t get jobs even though I tried, but nobody was hiring because it was a pandemic.
Now, five years later, Kreps who got a job as a truck driver in June 2021 and other plaintiffs in the lawsuit are still awaiting payment.
He was one of four people named in a class-action lawsuit filed against the Michigan Unemployment Insurance Agency.
