A Florida woman was overjoyed when she won $2,900 on a lottery ticket, only to find out her winnings were being confiscated by the state due to overpayment in her unemployment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Elizabeth Thornton, from Kissimmee, feels she’s been cheated and she’s not happy about it.
- Thornton was laid off from her job at Disney in 2020. She told Fox 35 that it took ages for her unemployment to kick in, but she finally did. Still, it wasn’t very much money, which is why her lottery winnings were so exciting. “When I won I said I could get caught up on my car note, my insurance, pay some bills, help my family out a little bit, my daughters, my grandkids, give them a little something,” Thornton said.
- She’d won $2,900 on a Pick Four ticket. However, before she could collect the prize at her local lottery office, she was told she would be gong home with nothing. Employees told her that she’d been overpaid by $8,000 from the state, and while Thornton said that amount had been waived and she didn’t have to repay it, that didn’t apply here.
- When you win the lottery, you suddenly owe again. Employment attorney Art Schofield explained that while Elizabeth Thornton’s overpayment was indeed waived, the state can still take any lottery winnings when they come. “This situation is as unique as winning the lottery. It’s not going to happen to many people at all,” he said.
- The state will always try to recoup its money. While it was the state of Florida’s fault that she was overpaid and they accepted that, they still want to get their money back. “The overpayments, while they’re not clawing the money back, it doesn’t mean that it might not come up at some point in time like when you have a lottery winning,” Schofield explained. “And now you’re pulling from the same entity so to speak.”
- The state agency that deals with unemployment benefits said they reached out to Thornton. They also confirmed that they do hang onto lottery winnings and that the decision in Elizabeth Thornton’s case was correct. However, Thornton isn’t having it. “You need to send me the money,” she said. “You took the money out that don’t belong to you. You told me I didn’t owe anything, you waived it.”
