Real money, real mistakes and real lives

What happened to laid-off Yorktowne Cabinetry workers was wrong. The Virginia Employment Commission made a mistake that will hit those laid-off workers in their wallets at a time when they can least afford it.

Because of a mistake at the VEC, some Yorktowne workers received too much in state unemployment benefits. Nobody got rich off that extra money, but a lot of people will get even smaller benefit checks in the future.

Because of the VEC’s error, 154 people who are out of their jobs at Ringgold-based cabinet-making business “owe” the state a total of $222,454.

One of those people is Joshua Norris, 28, of Sutherlin. Before the mistake was discovered, Norris was receiving $378 per week in unemployment benefits. But that has been cut to $288 per week. He has appealed the decision, but if he loses that, he could wind up with $144 per week — or nothing — so the money he “owes” the state can be repaid.

“I put a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound,” Norris said of his appeal to the VEC.

Recessions are tough times to find out a program like unemployment benefits isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. But this wasn’t a mistake made by Norris and his former co-workers. Rather, it was made by a government agency that should understand that it’s serving people who may be facing unemployment for the first time in their working lives.

For Norris and the other Yorktowne employees who “owe” the state money, it’s obvious that this benefit cut will hurt them. In the short run, nothing can be done to help them.

But over time, the state should recognize how horrible this kind of financial yo-yo is to people who have lost their jobs — and could lose a lot more. Since the VEC made the mistake, the state should pick up the tab for what people like Norris “owe” when mistakes like this are discovered.

Think of that as the state’s penalty for making this kind of mistake.

If this kind of thing doesn’t happen all that often, what’s an extra $222,454? If it does happen a lot — and people like Norris are put in the same jam — then the Virginia Employment Commission has got to learn how to do a better job of helping laid-off Virginians.

That didn’t happen in the case of the 154 laid-off Yorktowne Cabinetry workers. It shouldn’t happen to any Virginian. Getting laid-off is tough enough, even when the system works.

“I felt like I had failed as a husband and a provider to my family. … If it was just me, it wouldn’t bother me,” Norris said.