Vermont Business Magazine The Vermont Department of Labor is taking swift action to address an error that impacts Vermont employers who hold past due balances for unemployment insurance and health care assessments. The Department is undertaking an effort to modernize and innovate its legacy unemployment insurance system, and this month that process revealed – and the Department promptly verified – a rounding error was coded improperly into the 30-year old system. This rounding error affected only the interest rate calculations on past due unemployment insurance and health care fund assessment contributions. As of June 1, 2017, the rate is being calculated correctly.
“The Department of Labor is committed to ensuring that anyone impacted by this error is made whole, and I have directed my team to begin proactively working to identify impacted entities and make refunds for verified overpayments as quickly as possible.” Lindsay Kurrle, Commissioner of Labor.
The rounding error was limited to calculations for businesses who have carried a past due balance for unemployment insurance and health care fund assessment contributions. No other entities, individuals or programs were impacted.
Vermont law requires the Department of Labor to charge 1.5 percent interest per month on unpaid contributions. The rounding error equated to a .05 percent overcharge for only the months that contain thirty-one days. As an illustration, an employer with a past due balance of $1,000 for an entire year, would have overpaid by $2.50. The Department has verified that the coding error existed as far back as 2008. Since that date Department has collected approximately $26,000 in total interest overpayments.
The Vermont Department of Labor will begin notifying impacted employers and working to issue refunds for accounts that its verified have paid past due balances within the last three years. Records retention limits the Department’s ability to verify overpayments prior to 2014, so the Department is asking employers with paid past due balances before 2014 to call the Vermont Department of Labor’s Employer Assistance Line at 1-877-214-3331. VBMvermontbiz.com
Source: Vermont Department of Labor 6.8.2017