State slaps unemployed man with $13,000 bill | News

A Four Corners man wants to warn everyone what they are getting themselves into if they are applying or receiving unemployment after he got slapped with a $13,000 bill from the state.

Every morning Herbert Lopez looks for jobs in the paper.

"It don't feel good. I need to buy fuel...get back in the workforce," he said.

He has been laid off twice from the same construction company.

The second time he applied from unemployment, he was told he owed the state of New Mexico money for overpayment.

"$13,000 all together," said Lopez.

It was the first time he had ever heard of the term "interstate claim".

"They told me that I was overpaid and I should have been getting paid from another state," said Lopez.

Though his old job was based in New Mexico, he also worked in Colorado.

Even after he submitted his pay stubs, he said no one warned him he had to apply for unemployment from Colorado.

"A lady from the office said you're good to go. Start calling in on Sundays. So that's what I'd been doing," he said.

After KOB Eyewitness News 4 made calls, a spokesperson for Workforce Solutions said they will contact Lopez.

They said people who work in different states need to say that up front to avoid overpayment issues.

"How many people are going through the same situation I'm going through," Lopez said.