SEMINOLE, Fla. — For more and more Floridians, the thrill of winning the lottery is being ripped away. It's replaced with shock after being told they owe money to the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity (DEO), the state's unemployment office.
ABC Action News met with some of the winners who were losing out to DEO until the I-Team stepped in to help.
“Something that was so exciting became an absolute nightmare," Sara Magnetta said.
Magnetta said her family does a gift exchange around the holidays. That's when one of the lottery tickets she received ended up being a $1,000 winner.
“We’re in a time where inflation is going crazy, I mean the prices of everything...that $1,000 was a saving grace around Christmastime," she said.
But when the mother of three went to pick up her prize money, the only thing she left with was a "special circumstances ticket," saying she had a possible state owed debt to DEO.
"Everything had been taken," Magnetta said.
The last time she collected unemployment was nearly two years ago.
“I literally felt a pit in my stomach," Magnetta said. “I stay up on all my stuff, my taxes, I’m very on it with those kinds of things, so I’m like, how did I let this go?"
Pulling up her unemployment account, it read "$0" next to "overpayment." Making matters worse, for many people like Magnetta, getting someone on the phone from DEO can feel like playing the lottery.
“You feel lucky if you even get through to get on hold for a 5-hour hold time because what happens is, their phone lines are so booked up that when you call in, it’ll say - everybody’s busy. Call back later. And it just hangs up on you," Magnetta said.
In her eventual conversation with a DEO rep, Magnetta said it wasn't guaranteed she'd receive proof of the payment made.
"I felt defeated after that phone call, for sure. Which is why I turned to you guys," she told the I-Team. "This felt like this could hit home from a lot of people. This could put a lot of people in a bad spot that weren’t necessarily expecting to be in a bad spot."
Further south, in Ft. Myers, a mother of four found herself in the same scenario, winning the same $1,000 prize in a scratch-off and then struggling to get answers to the same questions.
“How was I overpaid?” Sara Brook said. “There’s no way I was ever overpaid. I still had weeks to claim.”
Brook told the I-Team she stopped claiming weeks when DEO hired ID.me to verify identities. She couldn't access her account and couldn't reach anyone at DEO to help. Then, fast forward to December 2022, and she said she still was never able to get through to a human being.
“I called. I was put on hold six, seven hours," she said. “I’m telling you, there’s nobody. It’s just like a game.”
It's a game she can't seem to win.
“Nobody calls you back," Brook said.
Magnetta said she wants to see change in DEO's system.
"How they run their payments, how they notify people who have previously collected unemployment," she said. "I wanted to make sure that this is the beginning to the end of how they run that system.”
Within days of the I-Team contacting DEO about the issue, Magnetta said she got a call that the state would be sending her a full refund. Brook also got a call from DEO after the I-Team reached out on her behalf. She's in the process of sending the state information DEO requested. What's still unclear is whether the overpayment was a mistake — or if it is being waived.
Regardless of winning the lottery, if you've collected unemployment, DEO said you should log on and check your account to see if there are any notifications and to make sure your contact information is in the system, especially as we start getting into tax season.
In an email from DEO's press secretary, the agency confirmed Magnetta will receive a full refund from DEO.
DEO said it notifies claimants regarding any outstanding issues on current and/or previous unemployment claims through their accounts.
Have you experienced a similar situation regarding the DEO/lottery and overpayments? Fill out the form below.
