Some Missourians asked to give back COVID-related payments

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Some Missourians who received unemployment insurance payments during the coronavirus pandemic are now being told they have to pay back the money.

Marissa Crozier told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that unemployment insurance kept her afloat after she was laid off as a costume designer for St. Louis Community College’s theater program, and after other work vanished due to COVID-19.

She went back to work at the college in August and then got a surprise letter from the Missouri Division of Employment Security saying she had been ineligible for the jobless benefits and needed to repay nearly $8,000.